


the knight

by iseemikimouse



Series: The Chronicles of Firelight [1]
Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Blood and Gore, Canon Typical Violence, Dragons, Kidnapping, M/M, Magic, Minor Character Death, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Post-War, Souls, Temples, knight!felix, knight!jeongin, little shit!minho, magical quest!au, mentions of human experimentation, mentions of past character death, severed body parts, soulkeeper!minho, useless gay!felix, war prison, whipped felix, whipped jeongin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:01:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 96,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25533271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iseemikimouse/pseuds/iseemikimouse
Summary: Since the fall of the  Kingdom of Firelight fifteen years ago, Felix has been trying to find evidence that they were wrongly accused. Said evidence comes in the form of an anonymous letter written out to the prince of Wishlight and to Felix. The prince of Wishlight sends Felix to gather the information and when he comes back with it, he'll begin the first step of restoring his fallen kingdom: resurrecting the crown prince.
Relationships: Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi/Lee Minho | Lee Know, Lee Felix/Yang Jeongin | I.N
Series: The Chronicles of Firelight [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1850104
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12
Collections: STRAY KIDS BIGBANG: 2020





	1. the godsrealm

**Author's Note:**

> hi! hello! welcome to chaos. this story is so soooo long and the longest thing i have ever written. the amount of stress and screaming this fic has made me do is insane.... but i would do it all over again. i had so much fun writing this and crafting the world that you're about to read. i know that there are mistakes in almost every chapter and i'm sorry for that. i began to rush everything because its past the deadline and i had writers block. 
> 
> i would just like to point out that this fic is heavily, HEAVILY inspired by mdzs. there will be a couple of elements taken from mdzs but everything else stems from me staring at my wall thinking about long haired skz. this is also a part one of this story because while the story continues on, felix's story will end with this one. 
> 
> i would also like to mention that there are two tenses in this fic and it's done on purpose. past tense will be told during the traveling sections while the present tense will be used for the actual story. i've been thinking about this like a fairytail book for some reason...? 
> 
> there are caution warning at the beginning of every chapter! i say this because i know there's going to be some people who aren't going to read the tags so i might as well put it in the front of the chapter. 
> 
> so with all of that being said, i would like to thank the mods for hosting this fest and for c and n for allowing me to scream at them about this fic. they're amazing and i hope that you enjoy part one of part one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw// blood, mentions of past character death, mentions of human experimentation, mentions of war

Lee Felix keeps his head still and his eyes peeled for anything to come his way. His body is flat against the ground, one hand forcing leaves to part while the other is firmly wrapped around the hilt of his sword. Only his eyes moved, watching as guards roamed around the area. He didn’t dare to move in fear of alerting the guards roaming around in front of him.

Each guard wears long silver robes, embroidered at the bottom with almost a dozen stars. The robes are open, showing bright gold tunic top that tied on the side and beige pants. Around their waists are thick pieces of cloth long enough to touch the ground, covering one leg. On the other leg are different colored chains, three of them to be exact. Each chain symbolized important people in the guard's life by little gemstones with names engraved on the inside.

Felix looks away from one of the guard's thighs; he doesn’t need to see this right now. He looks at the various weapons were either strapped on their backs or held tightly in their hands. They walk in small groups of two to five, some of them sniggering behind hands and others straight faced like this job means everything to them.

Felix likes to think he is a decent person, hating on those who deserved to be hated but there is just something about these pompous arrogant _assholes_ that he dislikes more than anything. If he could be away within his quarters, sipping apple wine and pretending the rest of the world didn’t exist, then he would much rather be doing that.

But he has to be here. Crown Prince Sooyoung was told about highly classified information about this place. Information that might have changed the tide of the war that brought down Felix’s former kingdom.

He tightens the grip on the hilt of his sword.

A loud trill sounds in the forest, matching the other soft trills and calls from different animals. But Felix knows this sound.

Jeongin has found something.

He breaths in, closing his eyes for a moment, before gently letting go to the branches from the bush. He listens to the fading footsteps before quickly crawling away from his hiding spot. It takes a couple of moments for him to finally get away from the ever suspecting eyes from the guards of Starlight, but when he did, he jumps up, and climbs a tree.

He doesn’t mind the bark pressing into the calloused flesh of his hands as he was far too old to do have feelings like that. He has been doing this since he was a child and he hasn’t been a child for the past few years.

He stands on a tree branch, his body weight on the balls of his feet. Quickly, he adds a couple more straps to his sword before jumping off the tree branch, pushing his weight to make it to the next tree. He does this as he releases his own soft trill in the direction he heard the first.

The trill sounds again and Felix continues to jump from tree to tree.

The wind whips through his hair, his braid slamming against his back and his bangs flying open. In his ear, the sound of his head chains jingle slightly but (thankfully) they stay in place.

He stops, his eyes searching for the familiar toffee hair only to find nothing.

He continues his jumps.

Another trill fall from his lips, followed by another near him. A couple more jumps and then he stops. 

A longer note comes from his left causing him to snap his head in the direction. Raven eyes stare at him before they're crinkled into crescent moons. It startles him enough for Felix to lose his balance and to fall from the tree. He huffs as he lands on his feet, rolling his eyes at the sound of laughter from above him.

"Do you have to hide in between the leaves?" a low whine forces itself out of Felix's lips.

"Only to bother you, my dear," comes the response.

Jeongin jumps from his hiding spot, mirth bleeding into his eyes. His hair is pulled into a high ponytail that reaches the middle of his back with a couple of leaves woven into the strands and twigs yanking at the green ribbon in his hair. Delicate bangs frame his face, giving him the appearance that Felix promised made his heart race. He wears the traditional training uniform of the Kingdom of Wishlight, a black skin tight sleeveless top tucked into hunter green pants. A blue violet sash is wrapped around his waist, the ends falling onto the middle of his thighs. On his legs are tight black leg braces that match his forearm braces under the sleeves of his robe. The hunter green robes swallow Jeongin's frame, making him seem smaller than he really is. Jeongin smiles at Felix, rubbing the blue violet ends of his robe sleeves in between his fingers.

Felix looks away, regretting the fact that his heart was thudding in his chest at the sight of a laughing Jeongin. With a deep breath, he tries hard not to think of about the flash of silver he sometimes sees across his chest, holding onto the single piece of jewelry the Kingdoms of Light require their knights to wear.

(Felix _hates_ the fact that the Kingdom of Wishlight wore shoulder chains. He hates it because they were _fitted_ to the person wearing them which means Jeongin's is _fitted_ to his _broad_ and very _muscular_ shoulders.

...

He doesn't actually hate it. He just hates how much of his attention goes into looking at Jeongin's attractive shoulders.

But Felix isn't attracted to Jeongin just like how Crown Prince Kwon Soonyoung explicitly told Felix that he wasn't attracted to one of his High Knights Lee Minho _after_ Felix caught them in a fierce lip lock outside of Prince Soonyoung's chambers. Felix isn’t attracted to Jeongin and Prince Soonyoung isn’t attracted to High Knight Lee Minho. Who _told_ you that information?)

Another laugh.

(…)

"Well, it was unnecessary," Felix huffs.

"Yes, yes," comes Jeongin's reply.

Clearing his throat, Felix faces the way Jeongin is watching, his brow raised and his eyes trying to avoid the knowing look on Jeongin's face. "What did you find?"

Another chuckle. "The cottage we're looking for. Any movements from the front?"

"No." Seriousness begins to etch its way into Felix's stance. He straightens his back a small amount before his arms fall to his sides. His expression morphed into one of determination. His hands ball into fists and his lips set themselves into a straight line, his eyes narrowing, finally spotting the cottage.

From the point where they are standing, it doesn't look like much. It just looks like a small building made out of wood and a wooden door. Trees surround the cottage like tall lovers protecting their much smaller one, their leaves gently brushing against the roof.

"Guards?" Felix asks.

"On a round," Jeongin says. "If we want to get in, we need to go now."

"Alarms?"

"Not that I'm aware of. I let loose a paperman and a small mouse but there was nothing."

Felix sighs. "This sounds too good to be true."

"It always, doesn't?"

"Mn."

"But I was watching it and I tested it. We should be fine, Lix."

Something doesn't sit well with Felix. This is too easy for them. They were able to slip near the Kingdom of Starlight's territory with ease which raises red flag number one. Red flag number two is the wind, there's none of it. The air around the forest is too quiet and too still for his liking. It’s like the guards were waiting for something. The final red flag or really what should be the first red flag is there are many guards to guard a single cottage. At the most there should be at least three, no more than five, but there was a horde of guards where Felix was watching.

And now the guards that were supposed to be watching the cottage are doing rounds? If this falling apart house is as important as the information passed to Prince Soonyoung was given, then why was everything around these parts filled with security but not really?

"We'll be quick." Jeongin says.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Felix glances to Jeongin who stands with his arms crossed against his chest. The position is quick to pull his robe off his shoulder, showing pale golden skin underneath (dear _fuck_ ). Felix looked away at the peeking silver chain against Jeongin's skin. ( _Fuuuuck_ … Okay sue him. He’s attracted to Yang Jeongin after all but this isn’t the time for this, Lee Felix.)

Felix only nods just as a faint breeze picked up, cooling his burning cheeks. Leaves crinkle causing all of the sounds in the forest to go silent. The air around them grows stale and a stench of death passed through Felix's nose. He opens his mouth to say something but Jeongin clamps a hand against Felix's mouth to silence him.

"Hush," he whispers. "The wind is listening."

Of course _now_ the wind is listening. Right when they were going to try and cross the small trail to the cottage does the wind chose to listen. But as quick as it comes, it leaves them, almost like it was searching for something else.

Every cell in Felix's body screams at him to move as the sky began to grow dark. A growl rips through the trees, and without a second to spare, Felix's hand flies to his sword.

"Jeongin?" Felix says, his voice slowly slipping into a warning. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

Jeongin whirls around, planting his feet into the ground, his robe swaying at the movement. He reaches towards the end of his hanging belt for his weapon, when his mouth falls open in shock. His body freezes at the sight behind Felix, which is enough for Felix to close his eyes for a couple of seconds before slowly turning around.

He almost gags at the sight of the monster, a massive wolf with teeth stained red. Thick strands of saliva fall from its maw, landing in thick pools the more it snarls at Jeongin and Felix. Bits of silver and gold surround red teeth as do arms and legs. While the sight is enough to Felix to take a step back, the stench is also enough to keep him in his place. It smells acidic and rotten, two things that remind Felix of a much harsher time.

His mind suddenly plays scenes of people being thrown into a pit of monsters, their high pitched screams bouncing around in his skull. He shakes his head. This isn't the time or the place to be caught in a memory.

"Jeongin," Felix calls. "What are we to do?"

"Run," Jeongin whispers. "I don't have my war hammer and you don't have _Haesbich_."

Felix says nothing more, taking a couple of gentle steps back. He tries not to get the attention of the beast but from the way those vermillion eyes are staring at him, there is no way that his movement didn't go unnoticed.

"On the count of three," Jeongin mumbles.

"One, two.... three!"

Felix doesn’t think as he turned on his heel, bolting for the safety of the dilapidated cottage. Jeongin is on his tailwind and the beast begins his chase.

The creature keeps its soft falls soft and its strides not too far as if it knew the faster it would run, the quick its meal will be in between its jaws. The wolf doesn't want to have its prey in its jaws quickly, no. It wants its prey to be a little worn out. It wants to _play_ with its food before it ate it.

Felix curses under his breath. He hates when creatures of the night played with their food. He finds it very annoying and frustrating, because in what world was it okay to play with your food? Don't these creatures have mothers that are supposed to _teach_ them these things?

But that's a thought for a time when he's not running for his life.

He doesn't dare turn around in fear of stumbling over his feet but the stench the monster was giving off makes difficult. He keeps his eyes in front of him, watching as Jeongin brakes off in a faster sprint. He’s the first one to make it to the door, his pale hand striking against the dark wood. He pulls at the handle before cursing.

"It's locked," he calls over his shoulder, ink eyes meeting icy ones.

"Then break it open!"

Jeongin turns his head to look back to the door just as Felix stills next to him. He looks at the door, sucking in a breath when he saw the bright yellow seal on the door. The seal is circular in shape, the first circle inscribed in a language that Felix can't understand. In the middle of the yellow circle is a massive six point star made out of smaller words from the same language. Normally, it would have been fine and either Jeongin or Felix could have broken the seal, but the giant flowing character of _royal_ was in the middle of the star. And this poses a massive problem.

Neither Jeongin nor Felix is considered _royal_ and therefore, neither one of them could open the door.

Felix curses quietly to himself, finally daring to look over his shoulder at the wolf still stalking toward them.

"Is there any way to rewrite the seal?"

Jeongin shakes his head. "I don't have enough time."

"And you didn't see this before hand?"

"I couldn't see that far," Jeongin pouts. "It's not like I could have gone close enough to the cottage without someone seeing me."

Felix sighs. The other man did have a point, he guessed.

The wolf stops at few meters in front of them, its lips curling once more. Its red eyes are watching their movement almost like it was waiting for either one of them to begin their attack on wolf but Felix can also play this game. Maybe then, he will be able to at least stab the creature, giving them more time.

"Try," Felix says. "Try and remake the seal. It's the only thing we can do."

Jeongin looks to Felix, raising a brow before glancing at the wolf who sat down. "And our friend?"

"Waiting," Felix mumbles. "It’s waiting for us to make the first attack."

"And you're going to play with it?"

Felix gives Jeongin a smile. "You know me so well."

Jeongin sighs before looking back to the seal to see if there was anything he could do. Felix looks back to the wolf who still wouldn't take its eyes off them.

Again, Felix can't help but to think, what kind of creature decided it wanted to play with its food before eating it? If this was any other creature, then Felix is almost positive he would be sitting in his own blood right now, but because this creature is a bit bizarre, it stays still few meters from Jeongin and Felix, waiting for its food.

Felix glances at his sword, huffing to himself that he couldn't do anything. Did he hate it? Yes. But it’s understandable. He’s not a disciple of a temple nor did he grow up in a temple and because of this, he doesn’t have the power of Shrive embedded onto his weapon. He’s the son of a general and made to serve his crown prince, not fight monsters and evil gods.

That was a job for the temple disciples.

Felix smiles to himself.

Most people didn't care for the temple disciples, almost everyone claiming they were heretics and insane but Felix knows better. He befriended a temple disciple when he was a teenager who cared for nothing but to protect the ignorance that comes with the common folk. The boy would laugh high pitched and always curious about life in the palace but when he fought, he fought with vigor like none Felix has ever seen before.

A more sullen smile begins to lift the corners of his mouth as he wonders how his old friend is doing. It’s been more than fifteen years since he last saw him and it wasn't a pleasant parting. The man screamed at him for not taking care of his lover. For letting his lover die a painful death. It is Felix’s deepest regret, letting the other person die the way he did.

But Felix always feels that he did deserve those curses. He had failed his job after all.

Felix feels the smile drop off his face, his hand gripping the hilt of his sword tighter. Emotions he didn’t want to know the name of begin to steep into his skin once more and they would have made a home had the wolf not made a move.

Snapping his head toward the wolf, he sees it had grown bored of waiting. It stands on its legs, growling low in its throat and ready to pounce. Felix's heart begins to pound in his chest. This isn't good.

"Anything?" he speaks to Jeongin, his tone low.

"No. This seal is much more complicated than I originally thought."

"Fuck."

Jeongin says nothing else to Felix, only mumbling words under his breath.

Felix maneuvers his sword in front of him and begins to countdown silently. The wolf tokes a step towards the two of them. Felix gripping the hilt tighter.

Three.

The wolf snarls at Felix, its red stained teeth looking far more menacing than before. Felix takes a deep breath, silently to the goddess Yuju to spare his soul if he’s killed here.

Two.

A faint breeze blows in the middle of the small distance between the wolf and Felix, almost comforting him. It feels like those gentle breezes he used to feel as a kid. One that would wrap around him like a comforting blanket.

One.

Felix closes his eyes just a brief second before snapping them open again. He takes a step forward, only to be held back by the wind. He fights against the wind, the air becoming harsher and harsher against him. His hair is flying around him, the strands falling out of their braid against his back. He can faintly hear Jeongin cursing next to him just as pink petals fly in front of him.

Oh?

_Oh._

Felix drops his stance, staring at the petals as they pushed the wolf back to where it came from. It’s and interesting sight to see a massive wolf being pushed back by air and flower petals. A small giggle comes from his left after the wolf disappeared.

"You would think that these monsters would have a better sense of attacking people," comes a soft female voice.

Felix glances over watching as the pink petals form a human shape. The flower girl smiles at Felix before humming quietly under her breath, a flash of light appearing and disappearing as fast as Felix could blink.

"Elkie," Felix says, nodding his head in salute.

Elkie stands two heads shorter than Felix, her long blonde hair brighter and longer than Felix's. Her eyes are a bright pink to match her flower petals and her clothes. She wears a short black top that only covered her breasts and a long pink tunic that sits diagonally on her body. It covers the left side of her body to the top of her thighs and uncovered the rest. Around her hips sits a thick yellow belt with hanging tassels. The yellow matching her leg bracers and the black straps matched the thigh long shorts she was wearing.

She grips her hair and pulling it forward, braiding the strands and weaving her petals into the strands.

"I never thought I would see you again," she says finally looking back to Felix with a soft smile on her face. "So much had happened."

Felix purses his lips. "The kingdom fell," he says flatly. "What more were you excepting?"

Elkie sighs. "Much more."

He lowers his eyes. "We lost our king, the crowned prince, and the second prince. We couldn't fight back."

A gentle hand places itself on Felix's face but he didn't dare meet her eyes. Not after everything that happened.

Elkie is a flower fae bonded to the cherry blossoms that used to flutter during the spring of the palace. She’s kind and gentle, never minding that she was alone in the center of a city that never believed in her existence. Only he and Felix's crowned prince would talk to the fae, telling her stories of gentle war heroes and fierce heroines who fought alongside them and she would listen with a rapt ear, laughing at the stupid antics between the crown prince and his knight.

Felix swallows.

He never went back to check up on her tree and he always resented himself for that. But he’s scared and a coward. He’s scared that her tree would be gone and her body next to it. He’s a coward because he can't utter the words that the crown prince is dead.

"But even if you could not fight then," she says, "you can fight now. Do you wish to see what is inside?"

_What?_

"Yes," comes Jeongin's voice. "Can you help?"

Elkie giggles, her hand still on Felix's face. "Of course. That is why I am here." She pauses, her hand falling. "But beware of what you find. It will tell the truth and the horrors of the Kingdom of Starlight that even I do not know the extent of."

Felix's eyes snaps up, taking in the haunted look on Elkie's face. He almost wants to take a step back because it was a look that he never seen on her face. He wants to reach out and soothe her brows but his hand didn’t move, too frightened to touch her.

But something clicks.

"It was you," he says. "You're the one who sent the notice to Prince Soonyoung."

Elkie nods, her bottom lip in between her teeth. "I have been watching this cottage since I first came upon a few months ago. Different officials of the King Jinyoung's have been coming and going, each of them with either scrolls or those strange orbs you used to show me. I tried to listen in multiple times, but I could never hear anything and feared going in as the few petals and leaves I would send in would be charred and reduced to ash upon entering. It never mattered how many times I could open the door either. So I sent word to King Jiyong and Prince Soonyoung as I heard they were helping out the refuges and survivors from the kingdom of Firelight."

The blood in Felix's veins begins to feel like ice at her last sentence.

"I thought they might find something that I couldn't hear in passing and see through the windows," she finishes, looking at Felix. "I just did not know that they were going to send Felix."

"You knew I was there."

"I hoped you were."

The ice in his veins turns to fire and the fire to shame.

"Elkie, I'm sorry."

"For what? You were mourning and trying to figure out how to keep Chan's people from dying out. You're continuing on doing that duty, High Knight Felix. Chan, Yedam, and King Chulyoung are dead, but you're still fighting." Felix closes his eyes. "You promised me that you would come home when the war was done but the war isn't done. The war will never be done until the _true_ criminals are brought to justice." She pauses. "My tree is fine. My life force is fine. My roots run deep, Felix. Don't forget that."

Felix opens his eyes and smiles sadly. How could he forget something like that? Of course her roots run deep. She’s just that resilient. She is the main reason why Felix was doing what he was doing.

He was the one that promised Elkie that he would return when the war was done.

He was the one that promised Elkie that he would bring peace back to the kingdom of Firelight.

He’s going to be the one that kept his promise to the flower fae of Bonghwan Palace.

He stands a little taller. "I will keep my promise," he says, causing Elkie to smile.

"I know," she replies. "I know you will."

Elkie walks to the door, giving Jeongin a brief nod, before placing her hand on the seal. It thrums in power before turning a bright red and unlocking. She doesn't turn around, only peering into the room.

"Be careful, Felix," she says. "This path will lead you down the road of the flower prince. If you complete the mission given to you, he will return."

Felix stares as Elkie's body transforms back into her flower petals. There is a gentle touch against his cheek before the petals are gone, leaving Felix outside of a cottage that he hopes might change the course of things.

Felix looks to the ground, giving himself another moment before looking into the cottage. He has the courage to do so, he just needs another second.

He knows what Elkie's words meant and to be quite frank with himself, he isn't sure on how he felt about them. He can only take them in stride and possibly discuss them with the man who’s radiating confusion next to him. Felix can feel the questions on Jeongin's tongue, the whole experience with Elkie moving too fast for him to grasp. But if Felix is being honest with himself, it’s a bit funny.

Jeongin likes when things are explained in some kind of detail to him as he likes to understand what was going on around him. He likes to be in the know but Felix has his secrets or rather, the things that he hasn't shared with the kingdom of Wishlight just yet. He’s content on keeping them to himself but with Elkie's appearance and the talk about the Flower Prince, maybe it’s time to let them in on why a flower fae would help the High Knight of the fallen kingdom of Firelight.

"I will explain when we get back," he says quietly. "We have a mission first."

"Fine," comes Jeongin's response. "I want the full story of how you know a flower fae. They're only known to those at the Temple of Aviary and the Temple of Flora."

"I know."

Felix looks up.

He isn't sure what he’s expecting within the cottage, but a single massive room filled to the brim of orbs and scrolls is not it. Yes, Elkie had told them both that people came in and out of the room with the items in the room but for there to be this many? This is slightly unexpected.

"What is this? A house of shelves?" Jeongin questions from beside him as orange and blue flames light themselves on the lanterns against the walls.

And it sure does seem like it.

Shelves and racks fill the open space, some of them leaning against the wooden frame of the walls while others stood tall and proud in the center of the room. Half opened scrolls are lying about, their silver tips gleaming in the light casted from the flames on the wall. The light reaches for the orbs on the other side of the room, the clear glass projecting small rainbows into the room.

Jeongin steps further into the room, his eyes scanning for any traps waiting for them. He sucks in a breath.

"Where do we start?" he asks, glancing at Felix.

Felix walks in, his boots clicking on the wooden floors. He reaches for the first scroll that he sees, uncurling it and reading everything over. "Just grab," he says. "That'll give u-

_Transcription Scroll from the Council of Starlight._

_Senator Jing: Do we have everything that we need for this, your majesty? Bang Chulyoung will not sit tight if he finds that we have been sending in troops to the outer most of his kingdom._

_King Jinyoung: Everything will be fine, senator Jing. I know what I'm doing._

_Senator Jing: But the people of the outer villages will talk if we keep this up._

_King Jinyoung: They will not. They fear us and know that if they say anything against them, it will end in their deaths._

_Senator Jing: Fine but what about our people? How are you going to keep killing off the outer villages when we need to create soldiers to kill_ our _villages?_

_Senator Gi: We need more people to conduct experiments on, your majesty._

_Healer Park: Our people are continuously showing negative reactions to the Pill. It might be best to use your prisoners to see if Firelight's people are able to wield all the elements._

_King Jinyoung: /pauses in sipping his wine. I will get you more people. For now, attack the village of Saeob and use the children from the last village to attack Miroh. Make sure you using phoenix brands on those who do not die from the attack._

What the fuck? What in the actual fuck is this? Felix tosses the scroll on the ground, grabbing another one.

_Transcription Log from Healer Park Ryujin's Lab_

_Healer Park: Today is the first day that we'll be able to test King Jinyoung's pill. Bring the girl here. We don't have much time to waste._

_Little girl: /screams. DON'T TOUCH ME._

_Healer Park: Don't worry sweetheart, everything will all be over soon._

_Little girl: MOMMIE! DADDIE! HELP ME! /begins to cry._

_Healer Park: I'll get your parents after you swallow this pill for me._

Felix stops reading the scroll, the parchment falling from his hands. Bile rises in his throat but he forces it down. He needs to keep reading. He needs to find more incriminating things.

Picking up another scroll, he looks at it for a moment. He doesn't want to open it, slightly terrified of the contents and the shocked gasps coming from Jeongin somewhere else in the room, is enough for him to force himself not to put the scroll down.

He rolls it.

_Transcription Log, Council Room_

_King Jinyoung: I am here to inform you of the Elemental Project. It will be dismissed as earlier today, a fire broke out in Healer Park's lab. He along with everyone else working on the project and their paper work was burned. Nothing was able to be saved. I don't like this but until we can find another Healer like Healer Park, this project will be set aside for now._

_Senator Gi: And the test subjects?_

_King Jinyoung: All fifty Firelight former citizens were killed as well._

_Senator Lee: And now what's the plan? We've been attacking Firelight villages and towns but we don't need them anymore._

_King Jinyoung: The fire will be blamed on Crown Prince Bang Chan. He grew angry at the thought of Firelight citizens trying to find refuge within Starlight lands. It will not only explain the death of the Firelight civilians but why a healer's compound was burned._

_Senator Lee: And the true reason for the fire?_

_King Jinyoung: We're still looking into it but for now, pass that rumor around. The Firelight Kingdom will fall and we will continue to work in uniting the Light Kingdoms._

Felix's hands twitch, all of his restraint going toward not crumpling the scroll before him. Of course he heard of the fire that killed fifty Firelight civilians and Starlight healers. He was with Prince Chan when he got the news but the fact that the rumor that it was _Prince Chan_ who had burned the compound down?

Bullshit.

It was bullshit.

Not so gently, Felix places the scroll back on the shelf and turns on his heel. His eyes zoom in on Jeongin who had his head in his hands. His face is paler than normal but given the information that Felix just read, he can't say he's surprised.

"We never knew," he says. "We never fucking knew."

"My kingdom was never as horrible as people said it was," Felix whispers. "We weren't the fire that wanted to burn people. We were the fire that provided warmth and light."

"I know. I know. I just," Jeongin sighs. "Children? They killed children to frame King Chulyoung of mass murder."

"They've done a lot more than that," Felix says quietly.

Jeongin's head snaps up. He looks to Felix before shaking his head. He didn't want to know and Felix isn't going to tell him. Instead, moves to one of the orbs and looks at it. His fingers run across the crystal coating before picking it up. Felix had seen one of these before, when he visited Arcturus Palace many years ago.

With wide strides, Felix walks to where Jeongin stands inspecting the orb before plucking it out of the other's hands. He opens his mouth to protest but when Felix closes his eyes for a moment, mumbling a simple vision spell under his breath, he promptly shuts his mouth and watches.

The vision orb in Felix's hand wobbles before it projects a moving picture onto the ceiling. Felix's eyes shoot up. The orb shows Arcturus Palace with its white marble columns. Busts of long dead kings sat some feet away from each other, all of them looking prim and proper. Tapestries woven from the finest silk hung on the walls, each one depicting valiant stories Felix has long forgotten. Two men stand in the center of the ceiling. One looking visibly upset and the other looks like he could give a rat's ass about anything.

Felix almost lets out a sob when his eyes landed on the upset man. He could recognize King Chulyoung anywhere.

King Chulyoung is dressed in Firelight's royal colors of orange and grey. His grey under robe ended a few inches from his ankles and his sleeves covered his hands. The outer orange robe had no sleeves to show off the grey sleeves. The outer robe was embroidered in the same grey, depicting the grey flowers found in the depths of the northern lava tubes. On his feet he wore his normal polished grey boots that Felix could hear if he closed his eyes once more. King Chulyoung's hair was in a half bun, a two toned grey ribbon kept the long strands of ink together. Felix's eyes creeps to the center of the king's head, his eyes fixated on the headchain that sits proudly.

Felix reaches for his headchain, his mind suddenly going back to the day that he got his.

Like all the children within the Firelight Kingdom, he had been five when his first headchain was placed on his head. He looked in the mirror in awe when he saw the silver link chain stood out against his blond hair before he broke out into a smile.

"Remember my little Lixie," he heard his mother say and suddenly he was five years old learning about the chains of all the kingdoms. _"All Light Kingdoms have three smaller chains connected to the main one. The top one represents your parents and will always have your father's and my name on the gemstones." She tapped on each gem. "The middle chain is removable only when you fully give your heart to someone. That is why your birth gem is there." She tapped on Felix's birth gem. "And finally, when you have children, their gems will go on the last chain." She smiled at Felix as she tapped the last chain. "Only the royal lineage of our kingdom will have a hanging gem in the middle."_

Felix snaps out of his daze, dragging his eyes away from the colorful set of gems he sees on King Chulyoung's headchain. Instead, he looks to those kind blue eyes that radiated worry and fear for his friend. His face looked paler than usual and his hands were ringing his fingers. He stopped after a moment, like he realized that he wasn't in the comfort of his home.

"Jinyoung-sshi, please," King Chulyoung's voice booms in the cottage. "This is too dangerous and the gods will not allow it."

"I don't care what you think Bang Chulyoung," says a second voice. Felix dares to look at the other man.

Dressed in shin length silver robe with gold embroidery at the bottom and a long slit on the side is the king of the Starlight Kingdom, Park Jinyoung. He stood a couple of heads taller than the Firelight king, his skin sunkissed, and dark eyes narrowed and thoroughly disgusted with the situation. His arms were crossed against his chest, the sleeves of his robes draping across the front of his body like a curtain. He turned his body away from Bang Chulyoung, the slit in his robes flashing rose gold chains on his thigh.

"Hyung please. This isn't right," Chulyoung pleads again. "You know this isn't."

Park Jinyoung scoffs. "Who are you to tell me what is right and wrong? Besides, I'm looking out for my kingdom. My kingdom will flourish with this power."

"By killing off the other kingdoms?" Bang Chulyoung's voice rises higher.

"Only those who oppose."

"Hyung. Listen to yourself."

Park Jinyoung whirls around, his eyes narrowed into slits. "I am listening to myself and I am doing what's best for _my_ kingdom. If you have nothing else to say then leave. You're dismissed."

Bang Chulyoung opens his mouth to say something but clamped it shut. He looks to the other king, sorrow and disappointment in his eyes. It was another moment before he turned on his heel to leave.

"This will cost you," Park Jinyoung sneers. "Your blatant disrespect will cost you."

King Chulyoung of the Firelight Kingdom stops in his tracks. He doesn't look back as he uttered his next words. "Come then. I will stop you if it's the last thing I do."

And then he's gone in a flurry of orange and grey. With it ended the vision orb.

Silence falls over the worn down cottage, minute noises of the outside barely trickled in. Felix wants to think about what he just saw but Jeongin's movement next to him quiets those thoughts before they could even appear.

"We need to get word to Prince Soonyoung," Jeongin says, is eyes wide. "This entire cottage is evidence against the king of Starlight."

Felix sighs. "And how do you think we should do that. We're in Moonlight territory and Queen Taeyeon isn't just going to give us this cottage."

Jeongin stares straight ahead, his eyes unblinking. A small smile reaches Felix's face as he stares at the other man. Part of him wants to reach out and smooth the wrinkles in the middle of Jeongin's forehead but he knows better than to touch Yang Jeongin when he is deep in thought.

Felix turns to a nearby shelf, placing the vision orb they saw on the shelf. He looks to the rest of the shelf, wondering if there were more moving pictures of the late king of Firelight. He wants to see the other man again... or really, he wants to hear the other man's voice.

King Chulyoung was like a pseudo father to Felix. Maybe that interesting uncle who had all the stories about his father in their childhood. Aside from his own parents and twin sisters, Uncle Chul was the first person in his memory. His uncle smiled at him before offering a sweet from the palace. Four year old Felix took it with a smile before setting his gaze on the older boy behind Uncle Chul's legs and the woman holding a baby.

Felix's Uncle Chul was the first person that Felix ran to when he wanted to learn to become a knight. He was the first person who listened to him when he developed his first crush on the pretty girl next door and the first person who told him it was okay to also like boys. He sat with Felix and Prince Chan when he turned sixteen to help him name the longsword his parents got him. (He might have thrown a small fit when his mother told him to go to the palace to name is sword. While his parents might have been the ones to buy it for him, they felt that it was right to have the other man who helped raised him give his thought on a name. Felix guessed they were right.)

Felix missed his Uncle Chul as much as he missed his parents and cried a little harder than both Prince Chan and second Prince Yedam did when they got the news of Uncle Chul's death. He would never be able to get Aunt Sooji's and Uncle Seonnie's screams out of his head, no matter how much he tried. But even more so, he would never be able to get their vacant eyes moments after their throats were slit.

Felix takes a deep breath and exhales when he felt his lungs screaming at him. He walks to one of the windows and stares out, his gaze finding flying pink petals in a breeze he couldn't feel. Elkie's words force themselves back to his mind.

_"Be careful, Felix. This path will lead you down the road of the Flower Prince. If you complete the mission given to you, he will return."_

He snorts a bit. The flower prince, one of Chan's many nicknames. He was only named that because he spent too much time under Elkie's tree with a book in his hand. Elkie would kneel next to him, weaving flowers into his long curly locks. (Elkie's eyes always sparkled when she was done with Chan's hair. She turned to Felix and Felix never had it in him to say no.)

But how is Felix supposed to bring back Chan?

The prince is dead. He _died_ protecting Felix and the final village of the Firelight Kingdom. Felix watched as his kingdom's crowned prince was killed by arrows. There was no way to bring back the dead.

Felix sighs and a loud scream comes from outside.

Felix's eyes search for the source of the scream but the only thing he sees is the shaking of the trees and a couple of birds flying out of their homes. The scream is followed by a loud snarling noise, which can only mean one thing.

The wolf creature.

A shiver passes through Felix's body. Even if he hates the Starlight guards and soldiers with a passion, he doesn't wish a death of being eaten by a monster. And if he’s being honest, there is no way for them to win. Maybe harm the beast just a little but to actually win and kill the animal? There’s just no way. They don't have the temple disciple weapons to do so.

"Ah!" Jeongin yells causing Felix to jump.

He whirls around to curse out Jeongin but the excited look in the other's eyes had Felix holding his tongue and forcing himself not to get starry eyed at Jeongin's smile. He doesn't have the time to worry about how is heart was doing odd flops in his chest. He has other things to worry about.

"What?" Felix asks, raising a brow and placing his hands on his hips.

"The wolf. If we can defeat the wolf, the maybe we can persuade Queen Taeyeon to give us the cottage."

Felix gives Jeongin a dull stare. "I don't see it," he said, honesty in his tone. "We're not disciples and therefore we can't do anything."

"But we can call for help from the temple disciples and evacuate the nearby village in the forest front."

"Again, I don't see how this is going to work."

"It might! And besides, the only other option is tell Queen Taeyeon about this cottage and the information that it holds. She wouldn't be able to do much anyways as we both know that the Kingdom of Moonlight is one of Starlight's strongest allies. She might not even give us the cottage if we just ask her."

Felix weighs the options he’s given. They could possibly do that and maybe get the cottage. Felix looks around the room. "But what if someone comes back and takes the information away from here?"

Jeongin snorts, rising a brow. "Who the fuck knows that we're here? Did you piss someone off and you didn't tell me?"

Felix scoffs. "I did no such thing."

Jeongin rolls his eyes. "Then nothing is going to happen to the cottage."

"Fine," Felix says, resigning to the fate of fighting the wolf. "Then how are we going to get Temple disciples to kill the monster? We're not near any of the Temples. Both Flora and the Aviary are too far."

"Use Elkie."

"What?"

"Use Elkie to find the closest disciples and have her bring them here."

"I'm not-"

"It's our only shot we have of doing this."

Felix sighs. "Fine."

Jeongin smiles and Felix rolls his eyes. They both exit the building, Jeongin pulling out different things from his belt. Felix keeps a straight face, whistling a soft melody. Jeongin stops fidgeting from behind him.

A rush of cherry blossom wind passes through followed by a soft giggle. "I heard," Elkie's airy voice says. "I'll go and bring them. Be careful, my flower knight."

And then she's gone, her pink petals flying high in the sky and even softer giggles echoing in the air.

Jeongin releases air. "How the fuck?"

"When we get back to the palace," Felix says quickly. "It's kind of a long story."

"Uh huh. You're going to forget. Just watch."

Felix shakes his head in slight disappointment. What more can he do in this situation? It’s a long story in how Elkie forced her way into his life. But that's a memory best suited for another moment when he's not about to rush into battle.

Touching the hilt of the sword at his hip, he mentally laments over how much he misses his actual weapon. But it needed to be done. His last fight with a thundercat and the heiress to the Temple of Canines ended up with the both of them covered in fur where it shouldn't be and two long cracks down _Haesbich's_ blade.

"Here," Jeongin says, grabbing Felix's hand and placing a bottle in it. "Drink this. It's going to help your stamina. Something tells me that we're going to be needed a lot of stamina for this."

Without a word, Felix downs the entire vial, making a face at the bitter taste. Jeongin makes a sound of disgust next to him.

"Let's go," Felix says after a moment of trying to get the taste out of his mouth. He runs under a tree, climbing it quickly before he takes off, feeling the wind in his hair again. Jeongin's steps weren't too far behind.

Felix's hand is wrapped around the trunk of the tree, his eyes following the slow movements of the Starlight guards in front him. They are moving like they had never fought a monster before, too many people doing too many things at once.

Was it going to get them killed?

Yes, yes it was.

Did Felix want to step in and stop them from being stupid?

No. No he did not.

But was it going to bother him that he could have helped saved the people he hated from a fate that might be a little worse than death?

That he it.

Maybe he was too kind because he didn't want them to die like they were. After all these were some of the same men and women who invaded his kingdom and slaughtered its people. He knows that no one would fault him if he stood to the side and watched, but that wouldn't make their deaths satisfying to him. They need to pay for all the chaos and blood on their hands. Dying by a monster doesn't allow them do that.

Jeongin is crouched next him, his arms dangling in front of his body. His gaze flickering between looking at the loosing fight the others were fighting and gauging Felix's reaction. The corner of his lips are pulled up when he watches Felix sigh.

Felix takes a step off the tree branch, falling to the ground with the grace of an experienced dancer. His fall caused everyone in the meadow to stop and stare him, those large red eyes recognizing his failed prey. The beast snarls.

"Fall into whatever formation you have!" Felix yells. "It will continue to pick off people if you don't!"

The soldiers look to both Felix and now Jeongin who had jumped down from the tree branch a couple of moments before. Some of them narrow their eyes at their uniforms and others began to pack into some kind of formation.

"You're tricking us! You wretched flame!" one of the men calls out. "You just want for us to get picked off."

Felix snorts as he dusted off the dirt from his pants. "As much as I wish for that, I much rather see you pay for your crimes against my kingdom than to die a death like this one. It would be much more satisfying that way."

The same man opens his mouth to retort but while they were standing around and talking, the wolf was still doing its thing. It _chomped_ on one of the soldiers, a large spray of blood coming from his body. The wolf lifts its head to chew on upper half of a man's body while the lower half wobbled before falling, white poking out from flesh. The sound of bones being crunched on by a massive human eating wolf was enough to pull the Starlight soldiers out of their stupid stupor and try once more to fight the beast.

Felix and Jeongin watch as they continued to stay out of whatever formation they had. For a moment, he debated on telling them once more but he keeps his mouth closed when the wolf comes too close. If they didn't want to listen to him, then he wasn't going to keep wasting his breath on them. He has more important things to worry about.

Unsheathing his borrowed sword, he takes a couple of steps back to see if maybe he could read what the creature is doing but monsters are unpredictable. They will do things no one will see coming, much like the pounce on that one soldier who just lost an arm. Felix has to give him credit though. He screams for a couple of seconds before maneuvering his sword to his other hand to continue fighting.

An arrow comes from somewhere above them, nailing the creature in the middle of its left thigh. With a loud roar, the wolf begins to swipe the air.

Felix moves.

As light as he could, he begins to parry with the wolf's legs. His sword slashes and stabs while his body moved like he’s dancing. At least that's what he heard.

When he was first learning to fight, he was memorized by those who looked like they were dancing. Their movements were always so fluid and graceful as they sparred with the tune of clashing swords. Even the loss of their weapons looked beautiful in a fight but as much as Felix wanted to look just as graceful, his body was too lean and too small for the muscular jabs and jumps. Instead, he learned to spin and kick, to dodge and flip. He learned to dance with women and travelling dancers who were willing to teach him.

(It was always a spectacle when he practiced, people coming from their homes and stalls to watch the Prince's Knight. Prince Chan had giggled at first, watching as Felix did his moves clumsily, but there was a fondness in those deep blue eyes. A fondness that suddenly began to practice with him as went through his motions.

Elkie would sit on the branches of her tree, sometimes giggling softly as she watched the two spar. Other times she would pull out her kalimba to help their stamina and endurance. Those days were relentless.)

The wolf lunges itself at Felix, the long incisors missing his left arm by mere inches. Felix barely has any time to react before the wolf lunges again. Fear seizes his entire being as he watches the malicious creature turn its head and lunged at him again. Of all of the things Felix is going to die of, it’s going to be a rookie mistake, one that he promised himself he would never make.

Felix jolts to the side.

He blinks for a couple of moments, watching the scene in front of him. A soldier dressed in silver and gold, stares at him with fear laded brown eyes at Felix for a few seconds before his head is engulfed by the wolf's maw, red teeth severing the head from his body. A sickening crunch fills the air forcing Felix's entire body to still.

Why would a Starlight soldier _save_ him? He’s their enemy, why save the enemy?

"Lee Felix! Pay attention!" Jeongin screams from somewhere.

Felix blinks a couple more times before shuffling backwards. Red eyes following his movements until it’s taken away from him by someone else. With the wolf's attention no longer on him, he rushes further back until he was hidden by a tree. He closes his eyes for a second, listening to the sounds of muted screams and pained grunts. He hears bones being munched on like a twigs snapping under weight and thick drops of liquid splashing into small pools.

But while he hears all of this, in the dark of his eyes, he sees fearful brown watching his still form before being eaten alive. More and more questions fill his mind and he might have gotten lost in his mind if not for his name being called.

Slapping his cheeks, Felix opens his eyes and takes a deep breath. Now is not the time to be thinking about this. He has to think about the soldier at a later date. For now, he needs to focus on getting out of this fight alive with Jeongin.

Coming out from behind the tree, Felix notices almost all of the Starlight soldiers have been mainly eaten. Body parts are thrown across the clearing, some arms and legs hanging from trees. The ones still alive look almost ready to collapse.

Raising his longsword, Felix takes a couple of steps forward before stopping and watching the wolf. If the wolf was slightly immune to physical attacks, then how about magical attacks? He looks to his hands, flexing his fingers before curling them over the hilt of his sword, taking a deep breath. Inside of himself, he feels the tiny ball of magic pulsing at his gentle touch. It’s like a new lover wanting attention, when he begins to pull at it.

Unsurprisingly, it complied.

His hands erupt in black and he takes a moment to watch the darkness move toward his blade. He smiles and then begins his dance again.

Left and right, he moves like a graceful serpent playing with its prey. His fangs is his sword bathed in his magical power, striking like he wants to eat. He can feel eyes on him, watching his every movement followed by another passing thought. Jeongin would want to know how Felix could fight with magic like he is.

And the answer was simple but then it wasn’t.

Almost all of the Firelight soldiers could fight with magic. They had been trained on the basics of controlling their shadows as it was necessary to fight against dark spirits that once claimed their homelands. But that was it. The training to really fight with their magic was left to the Mage Knights who followed Prince Yedam and Felix did neither.

The wolf snaps its teeth against Felix and he jumps back, the tip of his sword impaling the wolf against its neck. Shadows creep into the wound, causing the wolf to let out a long howl, pushing Felix away from itself. It thrashes around, pained growls falling from its lips leaving Felix with a little satisfaction. But the satisfaction doesn't last for long as he could see the next few moments.

His voice gets caught in his throat as he watches the wolf's tail slam into Jeongin's back, forcing the other man down. He hears a loud snap coming from Jeongin followed by a pain filled wail.

Felix feels the blood drain from his face.

The wind picks up around Felix as he moves to pull Jeongin away from the wolf's stomping feet. Out of the corner of his eyes, he sees pink petals flying around.

"Elkie," he says when he reaches Jeongin, pulling him to safety.

"Help is coming," she whispers. "The Temple disciples are not that far away."

"Do you know who?" He keeps his gaze on the thrashing wolf, the claws of the animal killing the last Starlight solider. Felix winces.

"Yes. He will help."

_He?_

Jeongin pushes Felix toward the wolf. "Don't worry about me," he hisses. "Fight."

Felix huffs but complied with Jeongin's wishes. Elkie's wind hovers over him as he walks back to the clearing, grabbing a fallen sword, and watching the movements of the wolf. The creature continues to hiss and growl, clawing at its neck trying to get Felix's sword out from it.

The corner of his mouth tugs up. He discovered a weak point. He can work with this until help came.

Not wanting to make himself even more tired than he already was, Felix didn't expel his magical energy into the sword. Instead, he chooses to follow the movements of the creature in order to find the perfect opening to pierce the sword through.

Felix jumps into action.

As he dodges and jumps he tries not to let his thoughts travel back to the injured man he pulled behind a tree. He tries not to concentrate on Jeongin's heavy breathing and instead listen to the way the wolf moved but it’s difficult. He wants to run back to the man and check over his wounds himself. He wants to make sure that the other is going to be okay but the threat of the wolf is still in front of them. There’s no way he would be able protect an injured Jeongin from a monster like this.

His sword makes its mark the same time Felix hears the flap of wings and feels the heat of magic about to sear his ears. He fling himself backwards as Elkie's wind seems to giggle at his actions. The wolf is thrown into a tree where it lets out a loud yelp before falling into a heap. It twitches for a moment before stilling and if Felix was new at this, he would think this fight would be over but he wasn't. The creature is waiting but Felix was done playing its game.

He looks up at the birds, more specifically owls, when someone drops next to him. He didn't dare look at the person, the white and blue making it obvious on who it was. Felix glances to where Elkie’s wind seems to hover across the glade, her petals taking on her human form. She smiles at Felix when he looks at her.

"Of course," he mumbles.

A few more people land gracefully from their owls, shouting orders with magic flying all around. Even if Felix knows very little magic, he would never know it to the extent of the temple disciples.

But that is thought for a later time. The wolf is being taken care of by people who would actually be able to put it down which means that Felix wasn't needed here. Instead, he’s needed behind a tree where Jeongin is leaning against, heavily injured.

Without thinking, he looks at the first person he sees, hoping they might be able to help tend to Jeongin's injures. His eyes land on a young man not too far from where he was standing. He has the wildest white hair Felix has ever seen. The man's sharp features and handsome face makes Felix feel a little self conscious about his looks because he had never seen such a good looking man before. The man looks rather small in the overly large blue tunic that reaches his thighs and covers his fingers. His pants reaches his knees, the ends wrapped in bandages like he was one to get injured often and his hair was in a gentle plait down his front, the ends tied a blue and white ribbon. He stares at the ribbon for a moment, noting the little blue cross at the end. Perfect.

The man looks a little startled when Felix stalks up to him and opens his mouth to protest but Felix isn't having it. This man will be able to help Jeongin more than he could.

The sound of fighting takes his attention away from the medic he’s dragging. He looks over his shoulder to see long ash blond hair with three braids tied with a ribbon Felix knows all too well at the back of his head.

Felix's mind supplies a man smiling at him, his gentle smile lines taking their normal spot on his face. His navy eyes crinkled at the corners before they looked to a person deep within Felix's memory. He always looked so happy when he looked at man in his memory.

Felix looks away when they reached the tree where Jeongin is watching with hesitant dark eyes.

"Please help him," Felix says.

"Of course," the temple disciple says with a small smile. He kneel to the ground and gets to work.

Jeongin gives him a death glare. "Felix! Don't just grab people!"

"Shut up," Felix sighs.

"No! You just don't do that"

"Jeongin, please."

"I'm not going to die from my injuries, Felix," Jeongin says with a small pout on his face. Felix feels blood rush to his cheeks before looking away. "Please treat the temple disciples with care."

"It’s alright, Sir Jeongin," says the temple disciple.

Jeongin gasps and looks to the medic in mock horror. "It's never okay to just grab people!"

The temple disciple continues to smile. "I promise it is. Prefect Changbin teaches us for situations like these."

Felix stills at the name. He glances back at the man with the familiar ribbon, sorrow filling his entire being. He balls his hand into a fist as flashes of Changbin's pain echo across Felix's mind.

He can't look away from the man who is dressed similarly to the medic, only his clothes were white and the ribbon grey and orange. Changbin raises an arm, his red blade catching the sunlight before it plunges into the neck of the wolf. Felix doesn’t watch the wolf stop moving, instead he chooses to stare at the long sleeves of Changbin's tunic.

Changbin catches Felix's eyes, causing him to flinch. Prefect Changbin sneers.

"I should have known when I saw Elkie," he says, walking towards the small group.

"Changbin," Felix murmurs.

"Shut it. Heal them quickly, Taeyong."

"Yes Prefect Changbin," Taeyong says.

Changbin's navy eyes are hard when they look at Felix, his hatred for him seemly to grow with every passing moment. Much like the first time he had looked at Felix with those eyes, he knows that he would never be able to get them out of his head.

 _"You could have helped him!"_ The Changbin in Felix's mind yelled at him.

_"You let him died! He's dead because you didn't help him!"_

He could never handle Changbin's tears or his broken voice. _"Why didn't you help him?"_

Felix can't change the past, however, and this was the new normal.

He takes a deep breath. "Thank you, Changbin."

Changbin rolls his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest. "I shouldn't have come to help you."

"Then why did you?"

"You can't even kill the beast," Changbin says motioning to the dead beast behind them. "Why must you fight it?"

"We had to try."

"And get yourself killed? Are you an idiot?"

"Yes," says Felix. A tiny smile reaches his face, the familiar banter wrapping around his soul like a warm blanket but like everything in his past, the warmth disappeared just as fast as it came.

"Of course you are," Changbin scoffs. He motioned to the area. "Why are you here anyways? This is too far for you."

"We were sent here on a mission"

"About?"

"What do you think?"

Navy eyes turned to blue ones, a swirl of emotions passing through both sets of eyes.

"Did you find information abo-?"

"Not here. Not now," Felix says quickly, mentally wincing at his tone of voice.

Changbin scoffs at Felix's tone, hatred once again entering his eyes and his tone. "Of course not. You've never been able to explain anything to me. Why bother?"

"Bin."

"Don't call me that."

A twig snaps behind where they were standing and a hand is placed on Felix's shoulder. He doesn't have to glance at Jeongin to know he’s watching the ritual behind Changbin. He lets his gaze look over just as Taeyong picked up a staff from the riding owl. Felix watches up until the temple disciple impaled the ground and it began to glow. Jeongin gasps from beside him.

"Now you know a temple disciple?" Jeongin says after a couple of quiet moments.

"I've always known a temple disciple," Felix says, looking between the two of them. He motioned to each of them, fully catching Jeongin's attention away from the ritual. "Jeongin, this is the head prefect of the Temple of Aviary, Seo Changbin. Changbin, this is one of Prince Soonyoung's High Knights, Yang Jeongin."

Changbin clenches his right hand into a fist and touched the left side of his chest with a small bow. "Nice to meet you, although if you're with him, then I don't know how nice of a time it is."

"Changbin, be nice," Felix sighs.

"I don't listen to you," Changbin hisses between his teeth. He sighs before waving his hand. "Leave here before Moonlight and more Starlight solders swarm here. They'll have your head if they see what you're wearing."

Felix looks down to his clothes, smiling a little. Even though the Firelight Kingdom had fallen fifteen years prior, it didn't mean that he was going to stop wearing his uniform. He loves putting on the form fitting black undershirt that mainly hid underneath the grey diagonal cut tunic top. Much like Changbin's and Jeongin's sleeves, his left sleeve passes over his fingertips, while his entire right arm was bare, save for the black undershirt. His black pants are cropped at the knees and a thick orange sash is tied around his waist, holding the scabbard for his sword. And unlike the rest of the Light Kingdoms in their boot wearing fashion, Firelight uniform required sandals that allowed him to move quickly.

Felix pats his belt. "We still have busines-"

"Whatever it is you were doing here, Elkie has already given some instruction to my men and they're following it," Changbin says. "Now leave."

Felix pauses before smiling softly. "Thank you Bin."

"I'm not doing this for you," The Prefect snaps, "I'm doing this for Elkie as she's the one who asked. I still hate you, Lee Felix and I will always hate you."

And with that, Changbin turns on his heel and walks away, not once looking back at Jeongin or Felix. A bitter smile etches itself on Felix's face but he understands why Changbin hates him and he could always accept Changbin's hatred.

"We should get going," he says.

Jeongin gives him look before he sighs and nods. "I don't think we need to get Queen Taeyeon to give us the cottage after all. Not with the Temple of Aviary here."

Felix shrugs. "Maybe."

Jeongin is silent for a long time as they walk back to the cottage. Felix's mind is blank as they walked. He forces himself not to think of anything because if he did, then it would be about Changbin and what used to be. He couldn't do that to himself at the moment. It would have to wait when he was in the safety of his home and Jeongin nowhere near him. He doesn’t want the other man to see the moment he would crumble like a five year old.

Not being able to stand the silence, Jeongin begins to talk. He talks about anything that comes to mind, most of it being the ritual he watched. He talks with his hands waving in the air and a smile on his face. His eyes crinkled into crescent moons the more he becomes excited.

"I have to remember this!" he says and Felix snorts.

"What are you, twelve?"

"Listen, just because I'm in my thirties doesn't mean I can't get excited about things. Besides, I just became an adult, you can't stop me."

Felix can only snort with a fond smile on his face.

When they made it to the cottage, Elkie is standing outside with her hands on her hips. She smiles at the two of them.

"I was able to talk Changbin into letting you two use one of the owls," she says. "He will be here shortly."

"I'm surprised he let you," Felix says.

"I'm not."

Felix hums. "Did you tell him why we're here?"

She shakes her head, her gaze lowering to the ground. "No. He wouldn't have believed me anyways. He's... he's been in too much pain to believe my words."

"It's not your fault," Felix whispers.

"And it's not yours," she whispers back.

"Perhaps."

Elkie only smiles and motioned to the inside. "I would take what you need to convince the royals about the Starlight Kingdom. When Jeongin changed the seal, he allowed me access inside which mean, Starlight can no longer walk in and out of there. This place is safe for the time being."

Felix nods to her before he follows Jeongin inside. He takes a deep breath looking into the room once more, but there’s more apprehension coming from him. He knows what the scrolls and the orbs contained this time. He would be able to warn Soonyoung of the contents before he would watch and read them. He has to. No one should be subjected to reading or watching this without prior knowledge.

He grabs the first scrolls that came to his hand, carefully avoiding the scrolls he had read before. His stomach rolls with the thought of reading them again as something acidic begins to crawl up his throat. If he carried those scrolls with him, he wouldn't be able to sit still on the way home.

He walks out first and watches as Elkie pets the owl standing in front. Felix's heart lurches when he sees the familiar tawny plumage of Changbin's own owl, Spear. Spear turns his head and stares at Felix with his large yellow eyes, an expression Felix has long forgotten how to read passed through his face. A loud trill falls from Spear's beak.

"He missed you," Elkie says with a smile.

"I missed him," Felix replies. "It's been too long."

"Do you remember giving him to Changbin?"

"I remember the tears, yes. It took a long time to get his talons out of Chan's hands."

Elkie laughs. "Poor Channie. He didn't want Spear to leave. He cried so hard when Changbin came to take him to his new home."

"Uncle Chul would have never let us keep a rider owl in the palace."

"He might have!"

"He wouldn't," Felix smiles. "A riding owl couldn't fit into our home."

Elkie pouts. "It might have."

Jeongin comes out of the cottage with a slightly confused face when he looks in between Felix and Elkie. Elkie being Elkie, hides a smile behind her hand, the corner of her eyes crinkling in the corner showing that she's grinning. Lowering her hand, the smile is still there and she hums.

"Go," she says, "Changbin will take care of things here. Show Prince Soonyoung what you have found.” With silent steps, she walks in front of Felix before pressing a gentle kiss to his cheek. " Wherever this takes you, my flower knight, please be careful. Please come back to me in one piece."

Felix keeps his eyes on Elkie, many questions forming in his mind, but one is louder than the others. He wants to know what she knows but the general rule of thumb in knowing a flower fae is that no one is allowed to ask about their direct futures. It was considered to be taboo and a sign of distrust to the fae and while he's failed in a lot of things in life, betraying Elkie's trust for knowledge of his future is something he doesn't want to.

"I will try," he says instead of asking.

There's a knowing look in her eyes as she begins to fade into pink petals. Felix smiles at her before walking over to Spear and placing his hand against his plumage. Spear trills in delight before bowing his head as if wanting to be petted. Felix keeps a small smile on his face when he reaches for Spear's. The owl closes his eyes almost as if he's basking in the attention that an old is willing to give him.

Spear trills once more before shaking his head and opening his eyes. He looks back to the saddle and Felix gets the message. There will be more time to catch up while they're in the air. If they want to reach Prince Soonyoung soon, then they should get going.

With practiced ease, Felix grabs onto the buckles of the saddle and pulls himself up Spear's body. Sitting on top of the riding owl brings a rush of memories from many years ago. He feels himself almost get lost in them before he shakes his head and looks to Jeongin who looks lost. Felix chuckles and offers a hand.

"Grab on," he says. Jeongin sheepishly smiles before grabbing the offered hand and being pulled up.

Jeongin grabs the scrolls from Felix's hand, tying them to one of the available hooks. Felix grabs Spear's reigns and tugs on them. The motion has Jeongin wrapping arms around Felix's middle.

"You really have to tell me these stories," Jeongin says as Spear flaps his wings and pushes himself off the ground. "You know a flower fae _and_ a temple disciple but not just any temple disciple, the one _in line_ to become a high priest. How?"

As Spear begins his ascent into the skies, Felix's stomach flips at the height. Maybe because it's been a long time since he's travelled like this but the height seems to be a bit different from before. He wants to squeeze his eyes shut but the beauty of the area forces his eyes to stay open. The tops of the trees are a bright emerald as is the grass. Crystalline water flows to the south, perhaps ending to the Southern Ocean. They're too far up now, but Felix believes that if he could see them, then the animals would look like tiny creatures living their daily lives. Felix looks ahead of him. The sky is a bright blue with very few clouds in the mix and while he knows that he can't physically eat a cloud, the childish side of him wonders what a cloud would taste like? Would it be something sweet or something salty?

The pressure on his waist causes heat to rise to his cheeks. He didn't mean to be in his head for as long as he was and maybe Jeongin thinks that he's going slightly crazy. He clears his throat.

"Are you sure you wish to know?" Felix asks, the heat staying on his cheeks.

"But of course!" Jeongin yells, nearly toppling them off Spear's back. Spear trills, fixing himself. "I want to know everything that I can about you, Felix. It's only right, isn't? I mean, we are courting after all." By the tone of his voice, Felix can tell that Jeongin is a little embarrassed from what just happened. He chuckles.

It takes a moment for Jeongin's words to sink in and when they do, Felix's cheeks feel hotter. It's not like he's forgotten that they're courting, it's just slipped his mind a few times. He always thought of himself settling down when he reached adulthood but with the outcome of the war and the mission he's given himself, he hasn't been thinking about himself. He's been thinking about the people who are following him and what's best for them. The fact that Jeongin proposed the idea to Prince Soonyoung in the first place is something he doesn't understand very well.

Felix did ask his royal highness why he was allowing Jeongin to court him but the prince had a secret smile that looked almost sad. That day, though, he swears that he heard Prince Soonyoung say he promised someone to take care of Felix if something had happened to him. Felix can only imagine who that person was.

"Well if you really want to know..." Felix begins his childhood tales, Jeongin listening with rapt attention.

He doesn't know how long he speaks, the time slipping away from him high in the clouds. Jeongin responds at the appropriate times, snorting when Chan did something stupid and snickering when it was Felix's dumb antics.

Maybe it was because of the words that had come out of Jeongin's mouth, but Felix finds himself listening to the way Jeongin inhales when he laughs. It's a proper laugh, Jeongin's. It’s one that has his stomach quickly moving up and down with his breath against Felix's nape. The warm air sends small shivers down Felix's snipe to which Jeongin takes as he's cold. The arms around his waist tighten a little more.

"I meet Changbin when I was no more than eight," Felix once he was done with stories of Elkie." It was right about the time I began going to the palace to meet with Chan and learn the ways of the sword. He lived on the streets for the longest time and we would always talk every morning on my way to lessons. It wasn't until I was thirteen that suddenly Changbin disappeared. Chan, Elkie, and I looked everywhere but he was just gone. We only stopped because Uncle Chul was beginning to get suspicions of King Jinyoung. It wasn't until I was either sixteen or seventeen when I saw him again. It was at one of the temple conferences that Uncle Chul and Chan got invited to. Imagine my shock when I saw Changbin leading the temple disciples of Aviary. To say that he earned the punches and slaps that I gave would be an understatement." Felix pauses, smiling softly. He grips Spear's feathers a little more. "It was nice to see him again. It's been a while."

"He hates you though," Jeongin points out. “However, nothing you've told me would warrant his hate."

"That's a different story."

Felix leans against Jeongin's body, the other man letting out a soft gasp at the feeling. They don't have to say anything else to fill the silence. Instead, they both listen to the sound of the wind whistling and the beating of Spear's wings. Very faintly, Felix can hear the beating of Jeongin's heart and maybe it's that beating that lulls him to sleep.

Felix's body jolts to a direction he's not sure of. It doesn't feel like they're moving anymore, but he really can't be sure. He's fallen asleep on Spear before and the way that the riding owl can fly can be smooth if there's nothing hindering his course.

He wants to continue to sleep but there's a sound really close to his ear that sounds like Soonyoung slightly nasally voice. Above him, someone sighs and shushes the growing voice. Mentally Felix sighs but he can rest in a little bit. He takes a deep breath noting he's still on Spear. Blearily he opens his eyes and spots long wavy dark hair. A pair of small gold eyes look at him before they disappear into crescent moons.

Above him, Jeongin sighs and lets Felix's waist go. Felix sits up quickly before bowing at Soonyoung.

"Your highness," says Felix.

"Felix!" Soonyoung shouts. "Welcome back."

"Yes sir."

"How did it go?" Soonyoung asks in a way that leads Felix to believe that if the prince was an animal with a tail that it would be wagging.

Felix holds in a laugh and tries to keep his face straight. He can't be rude to a prince, after all.

"The information you gave us was correct," Jeongin answers for him. "There was a cottage there filled with information about the Starlight kingdom."

Felix looks around when he feels a breeze ruffle his hair. He looks up at the sky before looking Prince Soonyoung dead in the eyes. "But it would be best if we talked inside. The wind hears all."

The playfulness Soonyoung wore on his face begins to slowly fall and a more solemn look takes over his face. He jumps off Spear with Felix and Jeongin following him down. Felix takes a deep breath as he looks to Spear, petting the riding owl once more before placing his head against the tawny plumage in a silent thanks and turning away.

Soonyoung stands at the front with a man by his side. The man stands a little shorter than the prince, his arms crossed over his chest. His lips are pursed in a smirk and his cyan eyes almost feels feline like. Like Jeongin, he wears the Wishlight uniform, his looking more like an elaborate fashion piece than a uniform but unlike Jeongin and his war hammer, a black and gold staff twice his height is attached to his back and a longsword at his hip. Felix has to roll his eyes.

"Sir Minho," he says with a sigh.

"Hi Sir Felix. It's nice to see alive and well," Minho says with a bright smile. "We can talk more inside about your adventure, yeah?"

"I'm pretty sure that was my plan."

Minho snickers before walking a couple steps behind Prince Soonyoung. Felix and Jeongin follow.

The pathway Minho and Soonyoung lead them through is mostly outside and under the sun. Soldiers of various ranks walk around with weapons and books as well as stable hands and gardeners tend to the grounds. Various flowers add a small pop of color in his peripheral vision, some of the scarlet asters reminding Felix a little bit about his home.

Felix gets startled when someone clears their throat right next to his ear. He stares at Soonyoung who isn't doing a very good job at hiding his smile behind his hands. He eyes Felix up and down causing Felix to blink a couple of times before steeling himself for all sorts of questions that he knows he's going to be asked.

"Did anything happen?" Soonyoung asks with a sly smile and throwing an arm around Felix's shoulders.

"Were you expecting something to happen?" Felix asks raising a brow and mentally sighing. He needs better friends if going to get grilled on different events every time he comes home with Jeongin after a mission.

"Of course! You went on adventure with Jeongin. Something is bound to have happened! So tell me! What happened?"

Heat rises to Felix's cheeks as he shakes his head. "No. Nothing happened. We were there to work."

Soonyoung pouts at this. "What a shame."

Felix splutters. "Your highness!"

"What? I can't wish for something to have happened? You're no fun Lee Felix."

"And things will happen when they do, Kwon Soonyoung."

"Fine. Fine."

The outside breezeway turns into a massive hallway of stone and marble. Elaborate designs of different stars cover the walls making it seem like a beautiful night sky. Round top windows appear every few feet, letting in the afternoon sun and a couple of ginormous doors come and go the deeper they get in the palace before they come to two pretty oak doors and a man standing outside of it.

Soonyoung's office and a guard?

Felix narrows his eyes at the colors the young man is wearing. They're Firelight colors and he's definitely not guarding the room. He wears the same thing Felix is wearing except with more personality, he supposes. The man looks up and catches Felix's eyes, a wide smile blooming on his face.

"Oh, Changkyun," Felix says.

Changkyun bows towards Soonyoung before looking at group around him. "Your highness. Minho." He pauses for a second almost to give a dramatic effect. "Jeongin and Felix, welcome back."

"It's nice to be back," Jeongin says with the same smile. "I don't have to sleep in a tree anymore. "

Felix snorts. "You say that like you didn't enjoy hanging upside down like a bat."

"But that doesn't mean I didn't miss my bed," Jeongin says rolling his eyes.

Minho whips his head towards Jeongin, a bewildered look on his face. "You slept upside down?"

"I'm somehow not surprised," Soonyoung sighs. Felix laughs.

"What's that supposed to mean, your highness?" There's disbelief in Jeongin's eyes almost like he was sure that Soonyoung was going to take his side on things. Felix continues to laugh at the betrayal running through Jeongin's eyes.

"What you think it does," Soonyoung's tone is final and the betrayed look settles in Jeongin's eyes before the pretty dark orbs are narrowed the harder Felix laughs.

It takes a moment for Felix to stop laughing and for Jeongin to calm down, his whines not reaching anyone. Changkyun stands with a hand over his mouth as he holds in laughter.

"Did you find anything?" He asks when everyone has finally calmed down.

"I found Elkie," Felix says licking his lips and keeping eye contact with the other Firelight citizen.

Changkyun blinks in surprise. "Elkie? The flower fae? She's alive?"

"Yes."

"And the others?"

"I don't know," Felix says trying not to let his expression fall. "I didn't have a moment to ask. Everything was moving so fast."

A flash of disappointment passes through Changkyun's eyes causing Felix to look away. He hates to see that expression on people.

"We should head in then," Soonyoung says before glancing at Changkyun. "Commander, if you wish, you can listen in on what happened."

"If Sir Felix allows it," Changkyun says standing a little straighter.

"Of course," say Felix."

Soonyoung nods, reaching for his door and pushing it open, disappearing inside. Felix follows and like always his eyes drift around the room. The color scheme is the same as the palace, a dark grey with accents of brown and green. Tapestries of stories Felix has never heard fall from the ceiling, the needlework so magnificently done that Felix always wants to find the seamstress who worked on the pieces and praise her. Bookshelves line the walls, stories, maps, and general knowledge filling them. Towards the back of the room sits a desk for one, the wood polished and gleaming in the sunlight. Stacks of papers, scrolls, and books sit on top of the desk, making Felix wonder if Soonyoung can actually seen anything if he were to peer over. And finally in the middle of the room, a wide table stands, just as polished as its smaller counterpart in the back of the room.

Soonyoung sits at the table, motioning for the others to sit while Minho stands to the side of him, his back straight and his brows slightly furrowed. Felix follows suit, the rest of the group sitting at the table. He feels a presence behind him but the hand on his shoulder is enough for him not turn around. Changkyun squeezes his shoulder.

"Okay," Soonyoung says. "We're all here and waiting. "Tell us."

Felix glances at Jeongin who nods and begins speaking. As they take turns, Felix watches the reactions of the room, hopeful expressions slowly turning into sad before completely mortified and disgusted. He can see the anger filling Soonyoung's eyes the more he listens to the story, his hands curling into fists the more Felix describes what was inside of the cottage. A sharp pain shoots through his arm from where Changkyun squeezes it and shadows begin to fill the room.

Once their report is done, Soonyoung looks a few years older than he is, frown lines permanently etching themselves on his face. Running a hand over his face, he stares at Felix before looking to Jeongin.

"And you have these items?" asks the prince, his voice flat.

"Yes, your highness," says Felix. "We only brought as many as we could carry. Most of them are still in the cottage."

"The cottage, however," Jeongin chimes in, "is now under the Temple of Aviary’s protection. The kingdom of Starlight will not be able to get in without them angering the Head Prefect." 

Soonyoung hums at this before raising an eye brow and trying to read Felix's expression. When he notices, Felix tries to morph it into an emotionless one but the way that Prince Soonyoung's eyes are shining is telling Felix that he was a little late in doing so.

"And how do you know a flower fae _and_ a temple disciple? A head prefect to boot." Soonyoung inquires, uncurling his hands and lacing them to place under his chin.

Felix smiles sadly. "I grew up with them."

"And you trust them to enough to keep the cottage from going back to Starlight hand?"

"I've trusted High Prefect Seo Changbin and Elkie with my life on more than one occasion. They will not betray that trust."

Soonyoung hums once again. "From your words, it sound like High Prefect Seo hates you. Are you sure about that?"

"The Starlight kingdom killed the person he loved most in front of him and wants to see Park Jinyoung fall more than anything." Felix's voice is clipped and his tone is harsh. For a moment, Soonyoung looks taken back by the tone of voice and Minho looks ready to open his mouth to reprimand Felix for his attitude before Soonyoung puts a hand up to stop Minho from doing so.

The prince nods and smiles softly. "I meant no harm."

Felix feels himself deflate a little, his emotions slowly spilling over. He has been penting up the emotions from the cottage since he saw what was inside.

The hand on his shoulder leaves and the sound of footsteps pacing the room fills the silence. Angry huffs leave Changkyun's mouth as do small mutterings. Felix has half a mind to call out to him to quell his anger but he keeps his mouth shut and lets everything they have spoken about truly sink into the heads of the others.

"They experimented on children," Changkyun says after a few minutes of silence.

"Yes," Felix says.

"Disgusting. That's disgusting and vile. How could they _do_ such a thing? To _children_?"

Felix doesn't answer. No one does.

Changkyun's hand is back on Felix's shoulder, forcing the man to whirl around. Blue eyes meet panicked dark ones. "Did you find anything about Charlotte and Scarlett?"

Felix looks away from the whirlwind of emotions running in Changkyun's eyes. He can see the hope for Felix in finding his sisters because Changkyun has given up hope for his own sister. "I did not," he says quietly.

"Charlotte and Scarlett?" Soonyoung questions.

"My sisters. They're part of the missing."

"Oh I'm so sorry."

"Don't be. I don't think I'll see them again in this life time."

"Felix...," Jeongin says quietly. "Don't say that."

He knows that Jeongin is right, that he shouldn't just write off his sisters as dead but there's that feeling in the pit of his stomach that tells him otherwise. He doesn't know if they're still alive and he wants to cling to that hope that they are. That they're well and being the craziest that they can be but the feeling in Felix's gut has never been wrong.

"It's alright," he says, his voice breaking slightly. "If there's nothing else, I'll take my leave. The documents are still on Spear, so you might want someone to take them off him."

"Rest well then," Soonyoung says with a small smile.

"Yes, your highness."

When Felix leaves Soonyoung's study, he listens to the steps following behind him. He sucks in a breath but doesn't turn around, not wanting to show the emotions or the pitiful look on his face. Jeongin deserves only the best and right now, Felix isn't the best with his emotions running like they are.

He goes back the way he came, the same gardeners and stable boys continuing their work. None of them give the emotional knight a second glance.

By the time he reaches where Spear is, he finds that the riding animal is nowhere to be seen but all the documents that were on his back are against the wall. He stares at them for a moment, rage filling his entire being but then a thought passes through his mind which causes the blood in his veins to freeze.

What if his sisters went through the same time?

What if they died at the hands of some kind of monster who thought it was fun to experiment on people?

What if?

What if?

What _if_?

Felix turns away from the documents and the orbs, taking a deep breath. He wastes no time crossing into the horse stables where he can easily find his own steed. Mounting the horse, Felix leaves the palace, his braid hitting his back. There are tears in his eyes the more that he thinks about what his sisters might have gone through. He hates that if they did, then he wasn't there to protect them like he promised.

He hates this.

Normally, he would be one to look at the scenery pass him and to say hello to the people of the palace town but his head is down and his horse is travelling fast as if reading his master's mood. 

Felix's mind stops asking what if when he's looking down at a village. He stares the buildings and the people who look like ants as they walk around. He sees colors of orange and grey standing out in a kingdom that should be brown and green, his heart being squeezed in pain.

Another horse stands next to his and they stand in silence for a few moments.

"I miss them," Felix whispers.

"I know," Jeongin whispers back.

"They were children."

"I know."

Felix laughs, his voice coming out wet. "Sometimes I like to think that this is all one large dream and that I'm going to wake up in my house with my sisters, both of them giggling because Scarlett did something she wasn't supposed to. Charlotte would try and keep a straight face when she would see that I woke up before returning to her giggles and running away."

"They both sound like the mischievous little sisters you deserved to have."

"They were. They were the perfect sisters I could have asked for." Felix licks his lips, his mind finally in a calm state of being. He knows that he's far from healing and truly letting go but like everything else, wounds of the heart take time to heal and sometimes they never do. "But I have to continue on for their sakes. I can't just wallow in pain right now. With this evidence that we've found, things are about to change."

Felix finally looks at Jeongin who is staring out to the village of Firelight citizens. There's a grim look on his face. The wind blows gently, sending wisps of Jeongin's hair flying around him and in a moment where there's pain and hope in the air, Felix finds the other man beautiful.

He looks away.

Now wasn't the time for a thought like this.

"You're allowed to mourn your sisters for however long you need, you know that right?" Jeongin questions.

"It's been fifteen years."

"It doesn't matter." Jeongin dismounts his horse and pulls Felix down from his. The movement is unexpected that Felix falls into Jeongin's arms with a yelp. Warm arms circle around his waist and pulls him closer to Jeongin's chest. "They're your sisters. You watched them grow up. You played with them. You helped them. You _loved_ them. You're allowed to mourn them for however long you need."

Felix doesn't say anything for a moment. He stares wide eyed at the plains behind him before there are tears covering his vision. He doesn't hesitate when hugs Jeongin back, his knuckles turning white from how hard he's hugging the other man back.

"I just want to bury them if I have to," Felix whispers, silent tears finally spilling over. "And if they're still alive, I want to give them the best life they deserve."

"I know."

"I just want them to be happy."

Jeongin hums and squeezes Felix a little tighter before letting him go. There's a kind look in his eyes as he brushes some fringe away from Felix's eyes.

"Let's find them," he says.

"What?"

"Let's find your sisters," Jeongin says.

"But why? They-"

"Your sisters are important to you," Jeongin interrupts. "This makes them important to me. So we'll look for them together. We can retrace their steps and I know that you've done it many times but there might be something that you've missed or something you don't understand. Two heads at this will be better than one." He smiles at Felix, his eyes hiding in gentle crescents. "But first, I need to feed you. What kind of man would I be if I continue to let the man I'm courting be hungry? Besides we can't start a search on an empty stomach."

Felix snorts at this and allows Jeongin to lead him into town, their horses trailing behind them. Some villagers smile at Felix and Jeongin before continuing on with their business while children and the elderly press food and drinks into Felix's hands because he's been travelling to much and you let the food spoil again Sir Felix! Don't do that! Felix feels a little bit a home here but the feeling doesn't last for too long. This village is a place to stay and have a house but not a home.

Felix's home was far from here.

It's been a couple of days since Felix and Jeongin have left the Wishlight palace for the small community of Firelight citizens. Whispers have spread around the village about what kind of mission their High Knight went on, some of them good but most of them bad. People came up to him, asking all sorts of questions but the tight smile and the sad eyes was enough for people to stop asking and to continue their daily lives.

Even now as Felix and Jeongin ride up to the palace on Soonyoung's summons do people still look at him with questions in their eyes. Felix has to turn away, the sheer hope slowly becoming sickening to him. Maybe if he too had the hope that something was going to happen, then he would look like them, but these past few days, he's found very little.

While he's not royalty, he's been surrounded by them his entire life and they're different. All royalty, no matter how many friends he's made with them and how kind they are, will always think about their kingdom before thinking of a group of people. Especially those who do not belong.

But this is strange.

Felix was summoned to the palace in an official invitation, a pretty piece of paper that's normally sent to the kings and queens of the Light Kingdoms but never to a knight of Felix's status. Soonyoung's instructions told him to wear proper Firelight clothes which left Felix extremely confused when he got the note and a package addressed to Jeongin.

 _I know he's there,_ Soonyoung writes. _Have him dress in these robes when you come to the palace. Commander Changkyun is already here and we've given him some Firelight robes that I had hidden away._

Inside of the package are formal Wishlight knight robes in green and brown accents to which Jeongin puts away until they're set to leave. Felix has to dig in his trunk for some orange and grey formal robes that he was given by Prince Soonyoung a few years ago.

All this leads Felix to right now, his horse galloping towards the palace with Jeongin dressed in his robes next to him. By the time they've reached the palace city, Felix's hair has come loose, the golden strands covering most of his back.

A stable girl greets them at the palace stables, a small smile on her face when she sees Felix. She stands up straighter when she spots Jeongin in his knight robes. Felix dismounts his horse.

"Sir Jeongin," she says. "Prince Soonyoung is waiting for you in his study."

Jeongin dismounts his horse and smoothes out the creases in his green mid calf length tunic. The belt around his waist has shifted to an uncomfortable position against his stomach and he places it back down. He turns to Felix and smiles.

"I look okay?" he questions.

Felix snorts and smoothes a couple of creases out of the wrinkled fabric. He motions for Jeongin to turn around to fix the handful of wayward strands and to pull on Jeongin's hair ribbon a little tighter. His fingers touch metal causing his eyes to shift to the shoulder chain against the green fabric and give a small smile. He reaches for Jeongin's war hammer attached to his horse before Jeongin knocks his hand away.

"Now you do. Go." Felix says.

Jeongin's eyes linger on Felix for a moment before he reaches to touch his headchain. He feel the metal against his forehead move before Jeongin is gone with the unlatching of his war hammer and the rustle of fabric. The stable girl chuckles behind her hands.

"You two are really smitten, aren't you Sir Felix?" she asks.

Felix just feels his cheeks heat up.

The stable girl leads Felix to the front of the palace as he smoothes out the pleats of his skirt, his dangling sleeves getting in the way of doing so. He mentally lamenting on how he wished that he could be wearing his normal uniform. While the dress robes did look nice on him, it's a bit hard to move in as he wasn't used to such restricting clothing. Although, he did have to hand it to Soonyoung in choosing the right colors. The dark orange top was tucked underneath an almost black sash and the same colored skirt. The colors were dark enough that Felix felt a little more comfortable in them, but it was obvious which kingdom he belonged to.

Changkyun is the first person his eyes land on, the Firelight commander sporting a knee length orange tunic, grey pants tucked into buckled boots, an orange and grey belt tied around his waist, and a matching boot length flowing robe. Changkyun's hair was placed to one side, the waist length strands looking softer than Felix has ever seen them. He glances at the headchain on Changkyun's head, the gems glinting color in the sunlight. Felix stares at his clothing for a couple of moment longer before letting his mouth stretch into a wide grin. It's been a long time since he's seen the formal uniform of the commanding Firelight officers.

"Something tells me that I don't want to know where he's found that," Felix says when he goes up to Changkyun causing him to snort.

"An ex is what he said," Changkyun offers despite Felix's words. "He had meant to give the uniform back but he never got the chance to." He looks up Felix up and down before smiling. "And I bet that-"

"It was Prince Soonyoung," Felix cuts Changkyun off. "It was given to me a few years ago when Soonyoung realized I didn't have anything else aside from my uniform. Since then, he's made it his mission to gift me these expensive clothes for my birthday and roped Jeongin into doing the same."

Changkyun stares at Felix for a moment before grinning.

"Oh he's smitten."

"That's the second time I've heard this in the span of ten minutes."

"He's really fucking smitten."

"Can you please just be quiet?" Felix groans putting up his hair in high ponytail. A handful of strands fall out, framing his face.

"Why?" The smile on Changkyun's face reeks of the older man being more of a little shit than he already is. There's a growing headache pulsing at his temples.

"Just hush before I make you do thirty more exercises than you already do," is the only thing that falls out of Felix's mouth. Changkyun laughs.

"Fine. Fine, be that way."

Felix fights the smile off his face, glancing around the area. He watches as banners make their way into the air. He sees black and gold banner with a moon in the middle signifying the kingdom of Moonlight and a blue banner with what Felix has always believed was a sky banner complete with a sun and clouds. This banner belongs to the kingdom of Skylight.

Changkyun gasps, his eyes looking straight ahead. Felix follows his eyes and sucks in breath.

As if it was walking towards them, an orange and grey banner with a phoenix in the middle comes near them. Felix can't take his eyes off the phoenix, an animal that he never thought he would see in the middle of orange and grey ever again.

"That's..." Changkyun starts.

"Firelight's banner." Felix finishes.

Immediately, his eyes land on the banner holder, a tall man with dark brown braid in the front. He stands like he's proud, his headchain glinting like Changkyun's was a little while ago. He wears an orange knee length under robe a little longer than the shorter grey over robe. A thin orange and grey belt loops around his waist where his sword hangs. Brilliant blue eyes find Felix's blue before his mouth is stretched into a wide smile.

"Sir Felix!" the man shouts. "Commander Changkyun!"

 _Park Chanyeol_ , his mind supplies.

Next to Chanyeol stands a familiar face that just stares at Felix before lowering his head in a salute. He wears waist high grey pants tucked into knee high boots. His top is tucked underneath a thick belt with a neat bow in the front. His sleeves reach his forearms and is crisscross cut showing the orange under robe. Against his back is a quiver filled with arrows and a bow that Felix remembers spending hours looking at.

 _Jacob Bae,_ his mind supplies once more.

Chanyeol bounds over to Felix and Changkyun shoving the banner into Jacob's hands before wrapping them around the still shocked duo.

"By Lady Yuju's blessings, you're still alive!"

Chanyeol's voice sounds a little horse, like he's been crying and truthfully, Felix wouldn't put it pass the gentle giant in doing so. He pulls away to get a good look at the two before moving over to show the rest more Firelight soldiers Felix didn't see the first time. It looks like a sea of orange and grey as most soldiers wear different variations of Chanyeol and Jacob's clothes but one thing remains the same.

Headchains.

Felix's legs feel weak because he didn't know. He had no idea that there was another Firelight community somewhere else. He was too fixated on trying to keep the people under his care safe and accounted for.

A loud gasp and a sob comes from the crowd of Firelight soldiers. They part to show a shell shocked woman in the center. Her long ink hair is tied in two thick plaits against her shoulders. She wears clothes similar to Jacob's the only difference is the pants are swapped with a skirt and the orange and grey robe on top of her clothes. Her headchain glints as she sprints towards Changkyun.

"Kyun," she cries. "Oh gods, Changkyun."

"Nana?" Changkyun's voice is shaky when Nana's body collides with his. "Nana?"

Felix looks away when Changkyun buries his face into his sister's shoulder. This is a moment for the Im siblings. He looks to Chanyeol and Jacob who just smile.

"How the fuck?" Felix begins.

"Lady Elkie and the other fae it seems," Jacob says. "When Azula fell, the flower fae warned different troops and scattered us. We're just as shocked as you are to see people. _Our_ people."

"Where?" Felix asks.

"I came from a small village from inside the Moonlight kingdom," Jacob says. "We have an entire company plus half of a village. Until a couple of weeks ago, I thought we were the only ones. Queen Taeyeon had me meet with five other commanding officers then." 

Chanyeol nods. "And I came from inside of the Skylight kingdom. Most of my company was killed but I've adopted another with Yoon Jeonghan and Oh Sehun. I believe his majesty Yunho combined two villages for the amount of people we have."

Shock just runs through Felix's body. Chanyeol watches over _two_ village worth of Firelight citizens? An entire company and half a village is where Jacob came from? And there's _more_ people in the Moonlight kingdom? He didn't understand. How didn't he know about this? Why didn't he know about this? Did Soonyoung know about these villages?

That thought halts the remaining thoughts.

Did Soonyoung know about the Firelight villages and not tell him?

A flash of anger courses through Felix's body and before he knows it, the question falls him his lips.

"They kept it from us?"

Chanyeol and Jacob turn silent at Felix's words.

"I don't know," Chanyeol says after a moment.

"If they did, then they had no choice, Felix," says Jacob, the ever voice of reason. "Imagine this. If they did know, then telling the other kingdoms about the surviving people of a kingdom they were supposed to kill off wouldn't look to good in Starlight's eyes. Who knows what Starlight would have done to our people and the kingdoms we're hiding in. They have to think of their people before they can think of us."

The anger passes after a couple of moments of deep breathing. Felix nods at Jacob's reasoning, fully understanding it but just because he liked it, doesn't mean that he's not angry. However, what done is done.

Taking over the emotion of rage, is a sense of excitement and wonder. Families have been torn apart because of the war, maybe missing family members are within the Moonlight and Skylight communities. If that's the case then...

Felix bites the corner of his lips causing Chanyeol to snicker.

"I haven't seen that in a while," he says. "What's your question?"

Felix blinks a couple of times before shaking his head, a warm feeling rushing through his body.

"Are Charlotte and Scarlett with either one of you?" he asks.

He waits for a bated breath, his shoulders deflating when they both shake their heads. Mentally he sighs. Finding his sisters isn't going to be this easy, he knows. But maybe, just maybe they would have been. Felix dares to look at the Nana, crocodile tears falling down her cheeks as she cups Changkyun's face in between her hands.

Felix looks away.

"Welcome to Yojeong Palace, Sir Chanyeol and Sir Jacob," comes Soonyoung's voice. Felix looks at the prince to see guilt mixed with happiness, two emotions that shouldn’t go with each other. Minho doesn't stand too far off. "I hope your travels went smoothly."

He knew.

Felix opens his mouth to say something but Soonyoung shakes his head and gives a hesitant smile.

"I know I have much to explain to you and Changkyun and I will, but first this meeting needs to begin. We only agreed for all of Firelight's people to meet because it concerns all of you." He pats Felix's shoulder. "You can be angry with me after."

"Fine," Felix bites out before sighing.

Soonyoung continues to smile as he looks at the Firelight banner and points up.

"Who will hold Firelight's banner?" he asks.

"It's only proper that Sir Felix does," Chanyeol says jabbing a thumb into Felix's shoulder. "It's the High Knight's job to do so."

Soonyoung nods and motions for Felix to do so. Felix's hand is too small to wrap around the pole correctly but he makes do. He stands a straighter and fixes his eyes forward. There's something about holding the banner of his fallen kingdom that brings a sense of pride to him. Perhaps it has something to do with the people in front of him or maybe not. He doesn't know but eyes of the different kings and queens on him as walks into the meeting room gives them a sense of purpose, it seems like.

Why?

Because here are the people of the fallen kingdom wearing their colors of orange and grey proudly. All of the people walking under the banner of Firelight know that their kingdom was falsely accused of crimes they didn't commit. Misspoken crimes that led their kingdom to ruin and unnecessary bloodshed and if being a part of a group who held their heads high while trying not glance at the faces of kings and queens who once spoke against them brought a smile to Felix's face, then that's what walking into the meeting room did.

The meeting room is in the shape of a diamond, a corner to the four cardinal directions. Boxes where the royal parties would sit and stand fill the corners, allowing for the royals to sit in the direction of their kingdoms and in the center of the room is where the host kingdom would sit. Two thrones sit back to back where the king and whoever he chose to bring to the meeting would sit, only today, it was Queen Dara who sat in the middle while Prince Soonyoung walks up, bowing to his mother before sitting down.

Felix leads the party of Firelight soldiers to the northern most part of the room, where he sticks the banner into the flag pole. He stands next to the empty chair, signaling there is no one of royal descendant to sit there. Felix eyes the chair for a moment before looking straight at Jeongin who was standing at his post, facing him. His lips quirk into a smile.

Queen Dara stands and bows to each of the kingdoms, her bow linger a little longer towards Firelight. She stands straight. "With all the kingdoms present, we will begin. Soonyoung, if you please."

Soonyoung stands, his back straight and his eyes hard as he looks through the room. "Last week I sent a two man team to the outskirts of the Moonlight Kingdom near the kingdom of Starlight based on information that was sent to me by an unknown sender. It was there that these two found incriminating evidence from the Starlight Kingdom and King Park Jinyoung."

Murmurs fill the room.

"You sent your men into my kingdom without informing me?" Queen Taeyeon asks, her melodic voice overpowering the mummers.

"Yes." Soonyoung says without a hint of regret. "My apologies Queen Taeyeon for not informing you of the excursion but this information was vital and I did not want to alert the King Jinyoung of our presence. Had I done so, then we would have never found this information."

"I see," is all she says before looking at Felix and nodding her head in understanding.

"What kind of information did you find?" asks King Yunho, one of the twin kings of the Skylight Kingdom.

"Information that the fall of the Firelight Kingdom was partly a genocide that we all took place in."

Soonyoung's voice suddenly echoes throughout the silent room and Felix counts to five. The nobles who had no idea of the hidden Firelight citizens within their kingdoms speak over each other, their voices loud and angry. It takes no more than a minute for the nobles to suddenly turn to the presence of Felix and the men and women throwing insults at them. Felix balls his hands into fists but he doesn't say anything nor does he look around the room. He keeps his gaze on Jeongin who looks calm throughout everything.

"Slander!" A male voice calls out above the rest. "The Firelight Kingdom fell as it should have! They were planning on overthrowing all of the Light Kingdoms and would have done so if the Starlight Kingdom didn't intervene."

Mutters of agreement fill the room.

"Are you sure about that?" Soonyoung's voice boom silencing the room. All eyes turn to him including Felix's. The prince of Wishlight looks red in the face and very angry. His eyes are narrowed at the man who steps next to Queen Taeyeon bowing at her before looking at Soonyoung.

"Of course!" He says, "We all heard and saw what the Firelight soldiers were doing to the Starlight Kingdoms and they even attacked the Moonlight and Skylight Kingdoms as well! Evidence that the kingdom of Starlight was wrong? Maybe you planted that evidence there yourself."

"Prince Soonyoung," a woman steps forward from the kingdom of Skylight, bowing to her twin kings before looking back to Soonyoung. "I believe you've been talking too much to the burned flames and are now listening to their tall tales. Never get too close to fire, your highness, or you will get burned." Her voice sounds like she's chiding a child, something Soonyoung doesn't take too kindly.

The smile on Soonyoung's face becomes dangerous and his eyes almost murderous but he keeps the look and dignity a prince naturally carries with him.

"I think I know what I'm doing, my lady and my lord," he says. "If you’re concerned that I planted the evidence myself, then question this. Why would I call for the kingdoms minus the kingdom of Starlight to this meeting? Why would I ask your kings and your queen to bring the people of Firelight who have quietly resided in your kingdoms for the past fifteen years? And why would I be telling you about what was going on? Is it because I'm concerned for people that we have wrongfully slaughtered because of fear or because I want to condemned an already broken kingdom? Besides, if I was making this up, why would you be here? I'm sure that your kings and queen have more important things to be doing than to listen to me, and yet here they are. What does that tell you?"

The room falls into complete silent at Soonyoung's words.

"Let's say this is true then," says King Daehyun, the other twin kings of Skylight. "What evidence have you brought to us?"

"Transcription logs and vocal orbs," say Soonyoung. He motions to the door where four of his servants come into the room, two carrying scrolls and the other two carrying vision orbs. He picks up an orb to show it to the room. "We shall first view this vision orb. It shows the truth about the fall of the Starlight village Byul."

A quiet spell falls from Soonyoung's lips, lighting up the orb and projecting an image onto the ceiling. Along with everyone else, Felix looks up into a room he's never seen before with unfamiliar faces minus King Jinyoung's. The group of men sit at a round table with a map in the middle. Pieces of phoenixes and stars are both standing and against the table like they've fallen. It doesn't take Felix any time to notice that the fallen pieces are the villages and towns that have burned. Anger begins to surface in Felix's veins.

"Byul has fallen," says one of the men.

"Yes," says another. "The mercenaries that I have hired have done a wonderful job in making it seem like it was the Firelight Kingdom."

"And the mercenaries?" questions the first man. 

"They have also been killed. We've placed a handful of dead Firelight soldiers around the village as well as dead Starlight soldiers."

"Very good," says King Jinyoung, lacing his fingers together on the table. He looks to the men in the room before looking at the map and knocking over a piece. "The captured men of Byul will be sent to Healer Park for experimentation, then. We're close to winning this war and taking out the Firelight Kingdom for good." He looks up and to his left. "Senator Jak, has your son changed his mind about the war?"

"Not yet my lord," says senator Jak. "We're planning on using forced cooperation."

"And how will you go about doing that?" questions Jinyoung with a raise of his brow. "He's refusing to listen. Maybe cutting off his head will solve the issue."

Senator Jak begins to look flustered. "My lord, Kwon is the only son I have. I refuse to give the head of my family to my daughter. No woman should be able to rule like Queen Taeyeon. As to how, my son adores his handmaiden. Her head will suffice in his path to war."

A loud hiss comes from the east and Queen Taeyeon's party.

"Very well. I do not wish for your son's death Senator Jak, but if he is not willing to join his kingdom, then he will be sentenced to death for treason."

"Yes my lord."

There's a knock on the door followed by a servant's head. The woman keeps her head bowed.

"My lord. King Chulyoung is here to see you," she reports.

Jinyoung takes a deep breath, distaste marring his features. "What does he want?"

"He did not say. Only that he requests your presence."

"Fine." He looks to the room before standing. "This meeting is adjourned for now. I have matters to attend to."

The vision orb cuts off and silence fills the room but no one dares to look at the Firelight soldiers standing to the north. And for that Felix is grateful. In anger, he lets himself come undone, shadows creeping at the bottom of his soles. He can hear the anger coming from behind him as a few cooling sensation fill the box they're all standing in. A hand squeezes his shoulder.

"Calm down, Felix." Chanyeol says, his voice shaky. "Your shadows are reacting to the others."

Felix pulls his shadows to him. "I will kill everyone in that room," he says instead of apologizing for his leaking shadows.

"As will I," Chanyeol says.

"Let us view the others," Soonyoung tells the room.

At this, Felix has to look away from the ceiling. He can't bear to watch another one of those, his stomach rolling in waves. That feeling of disgust forces itself in his body once more as he listens to the sounds of the room that was recorded. Reports of killings and experimentation fill his ears and he hates it. He hates all of this.

Felix glances to the twin kings of Skylight, their faces pale and disgust when one of the vision orbs shows a cabin filled with dead children. King Daehyun turns away for a brief moment before looking back, his posture slowly falling into a slouch. King Yunho, on the other hand, keeps his posture straight as if to keep up appearances but the way he's holding onto his chair tells Felix a different emotion.

He looks to Queen Taeyeon, whose eyes are glued to the ceiling almost as if her neck is permanently looking up. He can't tell from where he's standing, but Felix believes that there are tears rolling down her cheeks when she hears a little girl screaming for her mother before it cuts off.

"This is disgusting," Chanyeol says. "Absolutely disgusting."

"They planned it well and covered their tracks," Jacob mumbles. "Who would have thought of using war as a mean to conduct experiments like this?"

"I would have never believed the Starlight Kingdom would use their own citizens and ours to conduct experiments nor would I have thought them to attack their own people. What kind of monsters live in that Kingdom?"

"Horrible ones," Felix replies.

"We will have a recess here," Soonyoung says. "There is a lot of information spoken within the vision orbs. Let the information you've learned sink into your mind and then we'll begin the logs. If you chose to retire to your rooms, I will send a messenger to the appropriate places."

The nobles of different kingdoms leave the room only leaving kings, queens, Soonyoung, and the people of Firelight. Some grunts are heard from behind Felix as people sit down where they are standing, quiet mummers and soft sniffles reaches Felix's ears.

He lets out a deep sigh but keeps his stance next to the empty throne. He watches as Soonyoung nods to Jeongin and the Wishlight knight makes his way to where Felix is standing. He leans against the rail, glancing behind Felix before looking at him again.

"How are you holding up?" he asks.

Felix shakes his head. "I'm holding."

Jeongin enters the Firelight box, placing hand against Felix's cheeks. "Are you sure? You can l-" he stops himself. "Never mind."

Felix chuckles. "You know me so well."

He glances behind him to see everyone watching him interact with Jeongin before his gaze lands on Changkyun who tightly holds onto his sister's hand. Felix's lips quirk up.

"Changkyun found his sister," he says. "I don't think I've seen him cry this much since he was a child."

Jeongin knocks on Felix's head. "Let him be. If anything, I bet when we find your sisters, you're going to be worse than he is."

Felix snorts. "You think so?"

"I know so."

"Oh? Felix made a friend?' Chanyeol questions from beside him. "A Wishlight knight?"

"He's not a friend," comes Changkyun's voice. "Sir Jeongin is courting our High Knight?"

This causes a small eruption of giggles and disbelief among the small gathering. Felix's cheeks heat considerable as he whirls around and points a finger to Changkyun. "Shut up. Don't think I don't know about your little escapes with some Wishlight nobles."

Changkyun sticks his tongue out.

"You're a child," Felix sighs and Nana laughs.

"I'm glad to see that you haven't changed very much, Sir Felix. You're still..." she trails off before covering her mouth to hide her laughter.

Felix nearly squawks at her words if it wasn't for someone clearing their throat behind him. Jeongin straightens and Felix turns around. Standing behind him is Queen Taeyeon and a couple of people from her entourage. Her blonde hair is divided into two parts, most of it is pinned under her head dress of black and gold flowers and two beautiful hair pins while two thick strands of hair fall in the front past her waist. She wears a floor length off the shoulder dress that looks to be made of the finest silks her kingdom can offer. Her sleeves have beautiful cascading ruffles with moons embroidered at the opening. Around her forearms is a gold shawl that draws attention to the gold detail in her black dress.

"High Knight Felix," she says, her voice sounding different than before. "Based on what I have seen, I would like to offer and apology."

Felix just looks at her, his mind torn at her words but to him, actions speak louder than words and her actions haven't been something that he can trust. Yes, she protected different Firelight communities in the past fifteen years but she's also the woman who lead the party to kill King Chulyoung, Queen Suji, and Consort Changsun This woman took away some of his family and he doesn't know how he feels about an apology coming from her.

She looks at him, her chocolate eyes filled with an emotion that he's not sure of.

"You have every right to be disgusted in all of us," she begins again. "And it will not change what we did and an apology will not bring back the dead. However that is not an excuse."

Oh. The emotion in her eyes is remorse for her past actions. One of his father's teaching rears its head in his mind. The lesson of forgive but never forget.

But was this something he could truly forgive?

No, not yet. 

Felix sighs. "It's not but you are correct. The dead are dead and you can't bring them back."

Something glints in Taeyeon's eyes.

Chanyeol clicks his tongue and raises a brow. "Your majesty and High Knight Felix is correct. It's not going to bring anyone back no matter how much we want them to come back. Besides, that is our past and we need to look to the future of our kingdom. I can speak for most of us when I say that all we want is justice for the people we've lost and for the homes destroyed by you."

"But more importantly, we just want our home back," Jacob says, his eyes slightly narrows.

"If it's in our power, we will try and get you home," Soonyoung says walking over with Yunho and Daehyun. The two kings and the prince look like a power trio, ready to take on the world with their back straight and their eyes looking ahead. Soonyoung's eyes find Felix's.

"What does 'in your power' mean?" Felix questions.

"Unfortunately," Yunho begins, "because there are only three families present, our hands are currently tied. We cannot challenge the kingdom Starlight without the kingdom of Firelight."

"We're right here," Chanyeol points out but Daehyun shakes his head.

"The ritual to force Park Jinyoung out of power requires a royal member of the Firelight Kingdom to be present and if I remember correctly, all of the royals have been killed. Without a royal Firelight, then nothing can be done until one is born and comes into power." He says. "It's just like the ritual for a new king. All of the royals must be present in order to properly be crowned a king. It's been a part of the Light Kingdoms traditions and the will of the gods since the beginning of time." 

What?

What?

_What?_

This is the first that Felix has heard of this ritual and it makes no sense. He blinks a couple of times trying to make sense of what these people were saying. It was almost like they were trying to make excuses on why they didn't want to help them take down the kingdom of Starlight.

Felix's mind stops.

If they knew that killing off the entire royal family of Firelight would hinder their plans in crowning a new king and taking down a king, then why would they kill the royal family?

"But by the time that happens, everyone will be long dead and the Starlight Kingdom will continue their reign." Anger once again wells up in Felix's body. All of these royals were just making excuses in wanting to help them. He wants to laugh. "Why are you giving us hope if there's nothing to be done?"

"Felix, please calm down," Soonyoung asks and Jeongin puts a hand on his shoulder.

"I am calm," he says, his voice like ice causing Soonyoung to flinch. "I'm just trying to figure out why you gave a moment of hope before taking it away so cruelly. I've learned today that more of my people are still alive and you've hid this from me." Felix laughs bitterly. "We wouldn't even be in this situation if any of you just listened to King Chulyoung's pleas. But no. Our kingdom fell to a selfish bastard and more selfish people because of power. And now we have the evidence of said selfish bastard but there's nothing that we can do. Give me break. Your rituals sound like nothing more than an excuse than anything else."

"Our High Knight is correct," Chanyeol says, furrowing his brows and shaking his head. "If you have already known that there is nothing we can do, then why call us here to give us a hope that there is something? In case you weren't listening to what was just being said, our royals are dead. All of them. They died fifteen years ago at the hand of Queen Taeyeon and a traitor within our own kingdom. If you needed them, then why did you kill them?"

Felix raises a brow waiting for someone to say something but there's nothing. He shakes his head in disgust at the people in front of him. He feels like he was given a plate of food before having it taken away and being told that he couldn't eat.

"Taeyeon, now might be the right time," comes Queen Dara's voice.

There's a certain calmness that radiates from the queen of Wishlight as she makes her way over to the conversation. She walks with poise her hands in front of her emerald green knee length dress. Coming from the waist are two long white pleats with stars dangling at the ends like tassels to match the stars pinned in her long white hair. Her shoulder chain looks bright against the paleness of her skin and her eyes shine like clear water as she bows gently to the crowd. She smiles to Felix.

"Please wait to hear her story before anything else is said. I'm sure you would really like to listen."

Taeyeon stands a little bit straighter when all eyes land on her. "There might be something that can be done. Granted no one has ever been able to do it but maybe this situation is different enough."

"Go on," says Felix.

"There's an old children's story," she begins, "about a little girl who lost her mother and wanted to bring her back. She tried everything that she could from talking to temple disciples at the Temple of Souls and the Temple of Deities. Everyone turned her away, saying that it was impossible to bring back the dead. On her way home, the little girl helped an old woman cross a town. Grateful to the girl, the old woman asked if there was anything the girl wanted. She said her mother. The two bade each other goodbye. When the little girl reached her home, there was smoke coming out of the chimney and a song being sung by a familiar voice. Her mother came back. Overjoyed, the little girl thanked the gods and continued to thank the gods until she died. Her last words were 'to truly bring back someone from the dead, have a proper reason and ask. The gods will decide if the life taken too early is worthy of life once more.'"

"Of course many people have tried," says a woman of Taeyeon's party, "but none have been successful in gaining their loved one back. The gods are picky and will not chose anyone they don't believe is worthy."

"Who was the goddess that helped the little girl?" Felix asks.

"No one knows. Most people believe that it was Hansol, the god of souls but there are some that it was Yuju, the goddess of fire who helped the young girl as well."

Felix shakes his head at the story. This is ridiculous. Didn't they just say that there was no way to bring back the dead and yet Taeyeon brings a story about someone bringing back the dead. There's no way something like that can just happen. Nothing at... all.

"But this is just a story," Chanyeol says.

It really just is a story. A fairytale.

"All legends hold some truth, Chanyeol," Jacob chides.

It's just a story...

"Jacob is right," Changkyun chimes in dragging his sister along. "There might be some truth in this story, we just don't know what it is."

A story...

"And your point? If you want to try, waste your time, and appease a goddess, then good luck."

But what if? What if the story was correct?

"What choice do we have but to try it?" Changkyun demands. "We have nothing else to lose. Our kingdom is gone and aside from the ones in this room, the world hates us. Maybe praying to a goddess to revive King Chulyoung won't be a bad idea."

"It's a farfetched idea that's going to bring false hope to our people! Haven't we been through enough to follow a silly fairy tale?" Chanyeol nearly yells. "Besides, do we really want to bring back King Chulyoung from the dead? Do you think it would be something that he wants? What if he just wants to rest in peace and be reincarnated in peace? What if he's already reincarnated?"

"Not King Chulyoung," Felix says quietly. "The king had grown tired of the world towards the end. He hated the slander against his kingdom, but he was beginning to give up."

Chanyeol gives him an incredulous look. "You're really believing in a _fairytale_ , Felix?"

Felix shakes his head. "It sounds ridiculous, truth be told and it might be fake but both Changkyun and Jacob are right. All stories have some sort of truth in them. If talking to the gods might bring back one of the royals, then maybe it's worth a shot. We don't have to tell anyone other than the people who are listening in right now."

Chanyeol sighs and shakes his head. "You've gone mad but fine. Let's say we do this, then who? Who would be the person to revive?"

"Prince Chan."

Felix looks at Dara who nods her head, keeping a smile on her face.

"Sir Felix might be right," Jacob says. "I heard that our crowned prince continued to fight up until he was shot." Felix nods at this. "Prince Chan loved his kingdom more than we could ever. We might be able to bring him back."

Felix turns quiet and into his head, the question Chanyeol posed running amok in his mind. Would Chan mind being brought back to life? Would there still be hatred within Chan's heart if he's brought back? Is this really the right thing?

_Be careful, Felix. This path will lead you down the road of the flower prince. If you complete the mission, he will return to you._

Elkie.

She saw this.

"Felix," Jeongin says close to his ear. "What are you thinking?"

"Elkie. She saw this."

"What?"

Felix looks to Jeongin. "She said 'if you complete the mission, he will return to you.' We have to try."

He looks to Taeyeon who is watching him, her eyes dark. She looks down at her hands for a moment before looking back to Felix.

"Do not give up hope anymore," she says. "We may have been the cause of your kingdom's downfall but that doesn't mean we don't want to help your bring it back to what it once was."

"I know that, Felix replies. “What is the ritual?"

"The only thing is the person praying to the gods has to be a person closed to the revived person. If their prayers reach the gods, they will answer. Is there someone still alive who was close to Crown Prince Chan?"

"You're talking to him," Changkyun says pointing to Felix. "Lady Elkie called them her Flower Prince and Flower Knight, two titles that can only be given by a flower fae. Prince Chan and Felix were inseparable. You would never find them without the other."

"Then it might work," Queen Taeyeon says.

Elkie's words become jumbled with Taeyeon's story. Felix can only hope that both of them are correct for the sake of the Firelight Kingdom.

The rest of the meeting breezed by with more disgusted looks thrown all around the room when the transcription logs were read. People were disgusted at the logs, some visibly cringing at the descriptions given. Some nobles gave the people of Firelight sympatric looks while some others tried claimed that the kingdom of Starlight was being slandered for no reason at all.

But Felix wasn't paying attention to any of this. He was lost in his head trying to figure out the best possible way for him to begin his prayers to the goddess Yuju. Doubts filled his mind then and they still filled his mind a few days after the meeting.

He tried to keep a positive mind that she will answer as it's only been a few days, but finding the time to sit and pray was becoming a difficult task. After the meeting, Soonyoung had pulled Felix into his study along with Chanyeol, Jacob, King Yunho and King Daehyun and Queen Taeyeon to talk about what was next for the living people of Firelight. There wasn't much deliberation between the three semi leaders to bring the people together. How they were going to do that, they didn't know but Jacob and Chanyeol agreed to count and place everyone's name on a list. Copies of the list of names would then be sent to all of the communities as a way to try and bring family member back together.

And what an adventure that was.

Felix walked around with some papers in hand trying to get all the names correctly. When Felix told them why he was doing this, many tears were shed that even he shed a couple of them and hopes for the best for all the families under his care.

And in no time at all was the Felix's list sent off into different directions.

For two weeks, the entire village held their breath, waiting for some kind of news about people in the other villages. Some people drove Felix crazy by asking every day until the lists finally arrived and then the chaos happened.

Everyone in the village decided to stay in the town hall while the names of people were being read. The names went on and on, no one saying anything until the name 'Cho Kyuhyun'. A man screamed so loud that everyone had to turn and look him with wide eyes.

"Ha! The fucker is still alive! That son of a bitch!" yelled the man.

"Do you know this man?" Felix asked mentally sighing and questioning himself.

"Of course I do. Fucker is my best friend. I thought he died a long time ago but he's like a roach and I should have fucking known."

"I see. Well please stand to the side, then so we can get you connected to him, if you wish."

"Shit yeah I do. I'm going to punch him the moment I see him."

"Okay."

This wasn't the only violent reaction people had when names were being called out but it was the most memorable.

Jeongin came by a couple of weeks later, Soonyoung finally giving into his whining of letting him see Felix (at least that's what the letter Jeongin had brought to him said). He helped around town, fixing things and flirting with Felix most of the time to which the old ladies affectionately called Felix a tomato and the children giggled about how whipped both of them were for each other. Felix could only shake his head and sigh.

But it was nice. It was a nice little break that he had taking care of the people and spending time with Jeongin. It was like a breath of fresh air, even when the nights were getting darker and the weather getting stormier.

Something was about to happen.

But what, Felix didn't know.

Maybe it was related to the prayers that Felix said every night before he went to bed or in the morning when he woke. Or maybe it had nothing to do with anything. Maybe it was just the weather acting up.

Forty days passed in the blink of an eye...

Felix kneels on the ground, his head bowed in prayer. He has the habit of switching up the words of his prayers everyday to make sure that they were being heard. With his eyes shut and his hands in his lap, his lips move.

"O devoted goddess of Firelight, I humbly ask a favor from you. I do not want personal gain but a gain that will help the others of my kingdom. I wish for an audience with you."

He snaps open his eyes and sighs before getting up off the floor. Jeongin was already on the sofa with his eyes closed and small snores falling from his mouth. It has been more than forty days since he started this praying journey but nothing. No goddess has come to him and he's beginning to think that no goddess will come to him. He stares at the table where his paper and ink sit, mentally dreading the letter he was going to write to Jacob and Chanyeol. He didn't want to be the bearer of bad news.

Felix lays on his bed, sinking into the comfortable mattress. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, his mind beginning to write the letter to the other two. He feels the bed dip and his eyes snap open. Brown hair falls against his face like a lover's hand and red eyes stare at him.

"Hello Felix," says the person over him.

The person moves away before it occurs to him that he doesn't know who this is. He sits up quickly, noting that the person is a woman with feline eyes. She smiles to Felix, her smile radiating warmth and hidden danger. She chuckles.

"Hello?" he squeaks out.

"You don't know who I am?" she asks, her voice laced in amusement.

"I'm sorry, I don't think we've met."

"Such a charmer." Felix flushes. "You've only been praying to me for the last forty days. Forty one if you count the prayer you just ended.

Realization flood Felix's face. "Your grace." He scrambles quickly to the ground, kneeling in front of the goddess. "It's an honor to meet you."

"As it should," says Yuju.

It worked. Queen Taeyeon's story of the little girl raising the dead actually worked. He couldn't believe it. He's kneeling in front of the patron goddess of Firelight about to ask a favor from her. Felix takes a glimpse of the goddess.

She stands before him like any other human. Her hair is long, dark, and in perfect waves. Her skin is sunkissed and her eyes a beautiful shade of crimson. She's dressed in a red waist high pleated skirt that reaches her ankles and a sleeveless white top that is outlined in the same red as the skirt. Her feet are bare minus the golden anklet on her left leg. Like the people who follow her, she wears a headchain, completed with different sets of jewels on the chains.

Yuju catches Felix looking at her and smiles. He looks away, his face flushing at being caught before opening his mouth to say something. He's cut off, however when a man walks in. The man is tall, fit, tanned, and wearing nothing but a pair of sparkly black pants that pillow out and hug his ankles. Around his taut waist is a thin chain with small circle tassels hanging down.

The man glances at Felix raising a brow before looking back at Yuju and opening his mouth. Something must have shown on Yuju's face because suddenly the man whirls around and stares at Felix with wonder in his eyes.

"I know you," he says, his voice a bit deeper than Felix was expecting. He laughs before turning to Yuju. "Now, now, Yuju, do not go scaring the mortals. Yongguk or Junhong would like that and they will begin their spiel on how to properly treat humans."

"I can imagine," she says with a snort.

"I am sure you can." He looks back at Felix. "And you must be the man who has been praying to Yuju these days. I'm Zitao, the god of time. It's nice to meet you, Lee Felix of Firelight."

Zitao comes closer to Felix who wants to step away but the last thing he wants is to anger a god. The looks the god of time is giving him is enough to have him thoroughly disgusted at the god but he wisely chooses to hold his tongue. He smiles at Zitao, nodding his head.

"It's an honor, Lord Zitao."

Zitao jumps, a wide smile on his face. "Oh, I got called 'lord'! How exciting this is!"

"You always get called 'lord', Zitao," says a new male voice. Another god steps into Lady Yuju's room causing the goddess to sigh but to allow the gods whatever they want to do.

The new god stands a little shorter than Zitao. His hair is brushed to one side with beads embedded into the strands. He wears a simple black floor length robe with a white and red sash around his middle. On top of the inner robe is a matching bell sleeved white and red robe. His eyes are clear, almost like Queen Dara's but there's something different about this god's eyes. Something that has Felix taking a deep and trying not to look the god in the eyes as if feels like his soul is being read.

Oh.

"Hello Lee Felix," greets Hansol, the god of souls. "You are the last High Knight of the Firelight Kingdom and you have a question for us."

"Yes, I know," Yuju sighs. "I was about to get to that before the two of you came in. Don't have other places to be than here?"

Zitao smiles. "I don't have to be here just yet, but I wanted to see what kind of man would ask for his dead prince to be revived. I thought there would be more to him, you know?"

"Well humans do surprise you."

"That they do." He turns to Felix. "Tell me, human boy. What is the real reason you're wanting to revive Bang Chan? It's not for the reason that you keep telling people."

"It is," Felix says, keeping his voice steady. He can't get angry at these gods if he wants to work with them. "Prince Chan is the only one who will be able to help us. My people deserve justice for what they have gone through."

"Lots of people deserve justice but not everyone gets it," Zitao says, his voice growing bored.

"I'm aware but I feel like this is different. This isn't some petty revenge for broken fingers or revenge for a murder of a single family. Bringing back Chan will be revenge for _all_ of the families broken by the Starlight Kingdom. I'm willing give any price you ask, just please help me revive Prince Chan."

"You are beginning to bore me with this talk." Yuju says waving her hand around like she doesn't care. "I've heard many people tell me the same thing or at least close to it."

"Hush, Yuju," silences Hansol. "If you're not going to truly listen to him, then be quiet."

"I beg your pardon?"

"If you do not wish to help him, then I will. And maybe in honor of helping him, I will be able to change the kingdom name from Firelight, to Soullight. I quite like the sound of that."

Felix is confused. He can't seem to follow the flow of conversation anymore. Hansol glances at him and gives him a secret smile. Maybe this is the soul god's way of helping him get Yuju's favor...?

Yuju splutters. "You would dare take my kingdom?"

 _Her kingdom?_ Since when was Firelight her kingdom? The last time he checked, he was pretty sure that the kingdom belonged to the Bang family and Yuju was only the patron goddess. But does that mean the kingdom of Firelight belongs to her?

"I would. And maybe, just maybe, in doing so I would be able to protect them in case something like this happens again. Thousands of innocent people killed and thousands of shattered souls would never happen again. The reincarnation cycle wouldn't be place on hold while my keepers hunt for their pieces!" He turns to Felix. "Tell me, Lee Felix, knight of Firelight, would like my help in reviving your prince?"

They knew what happened? Felix mentally berates himself. Of course they knew what happened. They probably could see all that was happening within the kingdom and they have temple disciples to help them with tasks in the mortal world.

But while Felix was contemplating the mechanics of how the godsrealm works, fire erupts from around Yuju in anger.

"You will _not_ take my kingdom away from me. They are my followers and my people!" She shouts. "How dare you!?"

"Your kingdom?" Felix asks outloud before he can stop himself. "If Firelight is _you_ r kingdom, then why didn't you protect us? Why didn't you help us when we prayed to you for help?"

Yuju scoffs, crossing her arms over her chest. "I am a goddess! I do not have the time nor the patience to deal with human squabbles such as this one."

_What?_

"A squabble?" Felix asks, his anger beginning to rise. "That's what you think this is? _My_ kingdom was killed off because of greed and I want to protect _my_ people, the people you have failed for protect and you're telling me that you didn't have the _time_ to care about _your_ people getting killed? I would have thought that my patron goddess would have been different than I thought, but it turns out I was wrong. How disappointing."

And disappointed he is. Not only is this insane but the gods aren't listening to him. He thought that getting them to agree was going to be difficult but nothing was more difficult and upsetting than finding out that the goddess you _prayed_ is actually not how he pictured her to be. Maybe he shouldn't have thought of any picture in his mind about her, but he did.

He didn't think that coming to the godsrealm was going to be like standing in the middle of a throne room, listening to people throw around their power around to look more powerful. Instead, it makes them look dumb and like selfish assholes and by the way Yuju's eyes are a blazing red and the flames around her are increasing, he gathers that she's just the same.

"My, my," Zitao says. "You have a little mouth on you, don't you boy. How would you like to be my consort? "

"I politely decline, Lord Zitao," Felix responds, the wanting to leave the godsrealm grows stronger.

"Pity. You would have been lovely to my collection."

"How dare you mock me," Yuju seethes.

Felix dares not to look at her. "How dare you tell me that my kingdom wasn't worth your time. It's worth that and a little more." He looks to Hansol and bows his head. "I accept your offer to help me, Lord Hansol. Please tell me your price."

Hansol stares at Felix before nodding.

"Very well then. Follow me."

Felix doesn't look back as he exits Yuju's room, his anger taking over his emotions more than anything else. Maybe he shouldn't have blown up in the way that he did, but it really did piss him off when Yuju would call the kingdom hers. How could it be hers when she did nothing to protect it? He racks his brain in hopes to _maybe_ find something she did during the war but there's nothing comes up. Perhaps if he asks Chanyeol or Jacob, they might know something about the goddess blessing, but he's beginning to doubt it.

Hansol leads Felix through a massive temple made out of different things. It looks almost like about ten different people decided to decorate their areas in the way that they wanted it to look. The soul god chuckles at Felix's confusion of the layout but he doesn't say anything.

The area that Hansol led Felix to is white and light grey. The building looks like it's made from marble, swirl patterns go into different directions. Along the hallways are shallow shelves filled with small glowing orbs of light that seem to have minds of their own. Some of the orbs roll around like it's running around while others are calm. Some of them are different colors, mainly purple but a couple of red lights can be spotted here and there. There are quite a few of them, however, that either look smaller than most or have missing pieces.

"These are souls," says Hansol. "Obviously, the more active the soul is the more it keeps moving around in its cubby and the opposite for the calmer souls." With gentleness only a god could possess, Hansol reaches into one of the cubbies that has a soul missing pieces. "Cup your hands together and open them."

Felix does as he told and let's out a quiet squawk when Hansol gently drops the battered soul into his hands. Warmth surrounds his fingers before there's an icy feeling in them. Instinctively, he feels his hands pulling away from the soul, but he keeps himself steady so he doesn't drop the delicate item in his hands.

"This is what an almost completed soul looks like."

"Almost complete?"

"This soul was shattered. Do you understand what that means?"

Felix looks to the soul in his hands. "The person whose soul I have in my hand had something happen to them during their time in the mortal realm. Something horrible enough to where the soul wanted to nothing of the mortal realm."

"Almost," Hansol says with a smile. He cups Felix's hands, closing the fingers around the shattered soul. "While you are correct in that something happened to the soul, you're also incorrect. A shattered soul is soul who has given up hope in the world they live in. It could be love or hatred. Someone who was murdered or someone who has taken their own life. If that person has given up hope at the world when they die, their soul will shatter."

Felix nods and tries to radiate warmth into his icy hands. "Is there a way to collect the shattered pieces?"

"Only if they want to be found. Shattered souls can attach themselves on any living being and are like guardian angels. Until they are ready to be found, the soul piece will continue on protecting or wandering around and once all the pieces are found, they're given the chance to try living in the mortal world once again or to truly pass on to the afterlife."

"Why are you teaching me this?" Felix asks after a moment of silence.

"Are you sure that you want to do this?" Hansol questions instead of answering Felix's question.

"Yes," Felix responds opening his hand to look at the shattered soul against his palm. The soul slowly begins to roll around in his palm before stopping and emitting a small amount of warmth. "Prince Chan is only one that can protect his kingdom. King Chulyoung gave up in the end and based on the information you just gave me, his soul shattered, didn't?"

Hansol sighs, taking the soul from Felix's hands. "Yes. Bang Chulyoung's soul shattered. My soul keepers are looking for his pieces. But based on this logic, what make you think Bang Chan's soul didn't also shatter?"

Felix thinks back to the moment that Chan died in Azula. He was killed by someone close to him, someone he deemed a friend and for someone to do that to him would be enough. Chan was that kind hearted and loving towards the people he cared about.

"That same gut feeling of my mine is telling me that Chan's soul shattered as well. He... he was betrayed by someone close to him in the end. The things he thought were good were evil deeds."

"Kim Junsu."

Felix lets out a long breath in anger. "I'm glad that I ran my sword through his body when I got the chance."

"You are quite protective of Bang Chan," the god says with a smile.

"Of course I am," Felix mumbles almost too quietly. "Prince Chan was my best friend and it's been hell without him. I miss him dearly but I know I'm not the only one. His lover completely broke when he watched Chan die." Felix's voice gets smaller. "If bringing Chan back can save our kingdom and bring happiness back into his lover's world, then that would be killing two birds with one stone, right?"

"Yes." Hansol pauses for a moment. "But how can you be sure that Chan wants to help his kingdom once more? His soul shattered. He knew that he wouldn't be able to be reincarnated for a long time."

"Because this is Chan we're talking about. Chan is the person that everyone strived to be. He made our cruel world seem not so cruel. He helped those who he knew needed helped." He takes a deep breath. "He was close to figuring out how to keep his family and his kingdom alive. We went to Azula to evacuate the citizens, not to kill them. We were going to put them into the palace to save them not kill them." He shakes his head before looking down at his empty hands, closing them. "Chan could barely hurt a fly and after every battle he would go and pray to you and Yuju for the safety of the souls whether or not they were his enemy or a friend."

"I know."

"He's the only one that can do this task."

"I'm aware." Hansol sighs."However in order for me to help you, you must piece together Chan's soul."

"What? How do I go about doing that?"

"Like you said, Bang Chan liked to help people and you have to find the places where his help is needed the most. You can start at the elemental temples for guidence." He motions for someone to step into the hallway. "You'll have a soul keeper with you during your journey and he'll be able to help. I'm sure Kwon Soonyoung won't mind letting him go for a few months."

"Soonyoung? Prince Soonyoung?" Felix questions.

"Lord Hansol," says a voice that's familiar to Felix. He turns around to spot feline eyes and smile that bleeds, I'm going to tell Soonyoung everything you do with Jeongin if I catch you. He blinks a couple of times. The man standing behind him isn't in Wishlight robes but robes of a temple disciple, a long white sleeved top with thick black hems. His top is tucked into black sash and knee length black pants, and wears a pair of running sandals. His hair is braided on one side of his temple while the other is lets his bands run free. The rest of his hair is gathered in a low side ponytail.

"What!?" Felix nearly shouts.

Hansol snickers. "Lee Minho is one of my soul keepers. I assigned him to the Wishlight Kingdom to collect the souls of the nobles as they pass. I've trusted him for many years and he's sure to help you on your task to piece together Bang Chan's soul."

Minho's mouth stretches wide. "I would be honored to piece together Bang Chan's soul. He was a kind man and the world is much bleaker without his presence. I will inform Soonyoung in the morning of my lord's plans."

Felix reels from the information that Minho is a temple disciple more so a soul keeper. Someone of myth and legend. He narrows his eyes. "Does Prince Soonyoung know?"

"Of course he does," Minho scoffs. "I tend to tell my partner everything about me. Including this side."

"Ho-"

"You can ask more questions later. We have a job to begin pr-"

Someone clears their throat causing all of the attention to land on Yuju who has her hands on her hips. She stares Felix down, raising a brow when he doesn't look away. She's the first to look at the ground before looking back him.

"If you're going to the elemental temples then you can fill these up for me," she says as she throws a bag of gems at Felix. "Hansol will need these in order to complete the ritual of piecing together Bang Chan's soul."

"I thought we weren't worth your time," Felix says raising a brow.

"You are not," Yuju says rather quickly. "But prove to me that you are."

"You have your missions, Lee Felix," Hansol chimes in. "Complete it well within the next year and we'll be able to bring Bang Chan back to save your kingdom. We wish you the best of luck."

Yuju waves her hand and suddenly Felix's world goes dark. His first time within the godsrealm is over and his quest has begun.

The moment he wakes, he quickly gathers supplies and startles Jeongin awake. In a hurried tone, he explains to him of what happened while he was sleep, the other male looking at him like he grew another head. It's not until Felix holds Yuju's bag of gems that it finally sinks into Jeongin's head of what happened... and his.

The travel to the palace takes half a day with their horses running as fast as they can. Minho greets them in the stables, rolling his eyes when Felix stares at him for a couple of seconds as he's still wearing the soul keeper outfit instead of the Wishlight knight one.

"That's still really odd," Felix mumbles.

"You'll get used to it," Minho says leading the way to Soonyoung's office.

The prince is pacing his office when Felix and Jeongin walk in. His eyes zoom in at the bag tied to Felix's waist and nods. "You must leave as soon as possible. Of course Minho will be going with you but so will Jeongin."

"What? You need him here?"

Jeongin snickers at the question but he doesn't say anything. It's almost like he wants to know who is going to win the argument of where he would be going.

"I'll be fine. Jooheon and Mingyu are just as trusted as Jeongin and Minho. Besides, even if I kept Jeongin here, he would be bitching the whole time on how I didn't let him go with you."

"Your highness," Jeongin sighs.

Soonyoung grins before his face turns serious. "This is a mission given to you by not one, two gods. You're going to need all the help you can get. Things will be fine here, you take them. Minho has passes to get you into each kingdom if needed. He also has some coin for you to get by. I will inform the other Firelight communities about your quest as well as Commander Changkyun to watch over the community here."

A small weight lifts itself off Felix's shoulders when Soonyoung says those words. He realizes then, that Queen Taeyeon's story was indeed correct. He prayed to the gods for forty one days and they answered. Yuju and Hansol both gave him a quest that needs to be completed within a year and when he's done, Chan will be brought back to life. There is hope after all.

"I'll write to Chanyeol and Jacob about the quest when we hit the road," says Felix. "It was my time to give them a report about the village anyways so it should be fine." Soonyoung nods with a slightly dazed expression. "You're taking this surprising well."

"I'm actually not and freaking out inside my head but I have to be composed for this, don't I?"

"I'll be fine, Soonyoung," Minho says wrapping his arms around Soonyoung's shoulders and pressing a kiss to his forehead.

"We'll be fine, your highness," Jeongin interjects. "All of us are more than capable to take care of ourselves."

"Gods help me if you didn't," Soonyoung breathes out against Minho's shoulder.

Jeongin snorts and Felix only sighs. It will be fine, won't it?


	2. the water temple

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw// massive serpent, gore, blood, near death experience, mentions of past character death

It's been a couple of days since they've left Yojeong palace and there hasn't been more than a couple of words said. It's not because they haven't travelled together, more like, they don't know what to talk about. Felix engages in small talk, but then his mind catches up to him wondering if he's really doing the right thing.

The night before they had left, he penned letters to both Jacob and Chanyeol informing them that he might not be writing for a while and if there was anything they needed, to reach out to Changkyun. He didn't wait for their responses before he left.

Soonyoung had provided them with all the things they needed for their journey as Felix wasn't sure if they would be heading back anytime soon. Minho did in fact have bags filled with coin that he hid in different places on all of their horses, and an excuse if someone were to stop and question them. Bed rolls, extra clothes, and dried food that would last about few weeks were stored on each horse as well as latches and hooks to carry their weapons if they chose not to carry it around with them.

They decided on to travel to the water temple in the kingdom Skylight first but no one was familiar with it. Through a couple of hours of quick research, Jeongin had found out about the small village of Leam on the edge of Skylight near the border of Firelight and Starlight. It was going to be about a two week journey to the village of Leam where they had to cross through part of one of Wishlight's many forests and a couple of rivers.

It should be easy enough, right?

The first small village they stopped at was about three days away from the palace. They stayed at an inn where there was only one room left but the good thing was that the room had four beds, a bed for each of them and an extra one where they could put their things if they didn't want to leave them on the floor. The night came and went, and they fell back into silence. The silence drove Jeongin mad but that's there the chaotic arguments between Jeongin and Minho had begun. Their first argument lasted a few hours before Felix had enough and rushed a little ways off to get the rid of his headaches. His silence only lasted a couple of minutes before horse hooves were heard hitting the ground and they were back next to him. The argument of whose horse was faster began again. Felix didn't say anything, perhaps liking the noise the two were giving him.

They stopped to camp that night right outside the forest. There was a fire going in the middle which meant that Jeongin and Minho were shouting at each other across the flames. Felix sighed.

"If you're going not going to come to an agreement, why don't you either race the horses or spar?" He asked to which Jeongin and Minho just stared at him. With a shake of his head, Felix placed out his bed roll and went to sleep, ignoring the whispers coming from the two idiots by the fire.

The next morning, he woke up to the sound of horse hooves hitting the ground and a victory yell coming from Minho.

"In your face, Yang Jeongin!" he yelled and Felix sighed. Something told him it was going to be a long day.

And just like that, a few days had past. Jeongin and Minho would get into some kind of debate, test said debate, and have a victor of the same debate. Felix was in the middle, always used to referee the tests and make logical conclusions.

It was about halfway to Leam did their nightly arguments change into sparring matches that Felix also participated in. The first night, they were by the river Ugo when Jeongin and Felix fought their first match. Felix danced across the riverbed, _Haesbich_ feeling right in his hand while Jeongin swung and leapt with his war hammer. It was still an odd thing for Felix, fighting someone with a war hammer. He did know some of Jeongin's movements but the last time they sparred like this was months ago when Soonyoung wanted to know how Jeongin could handle such a massive weapon and if he has gotten better over time.

The match ended in Jeongin's victory when Felix tripped over a rock he didn't see. He slammed knees first, the rushing of wind came from behind him and a glint of silver in his periphial vision.

"Now we're at seventeen to fourteen," said Jeongin. "You're still in the lead."

Felix sighed and forced himself up and moved to the side where Minho sat, his eyes gleaming. Tomorrow would be when Minho fought against Jeongin before he would fight against Felix.

Crossing the river was easy enough when they found someone ferrying travelers across. It only took a couple of hours before they were back on their horses and heading towards another river.

That night is when Felix and Jeongin saw Minho fight for the first time. Minho's choice of weapons were a bow and arrows and chakrams and he was the fastest fighter either one of them had seen in a long time. Jeongin's fight with Minho only lasted a couple of seconds before one of Minho's chakrams was pressed against Jeongin's neck. Minho's face bloomed into a smile as he called Felix to come out into the open to which he did. Felix's match against Minho lasted a minute, also with one of Minho's chakrams against Felix's neck.

This is how the rest of the journey to Leam went. Debates between Minho and Jeongin, tests to said debates, and sparring. They crossed through a handful of small villages and crossed into the kingdom of Skylight where the people were slightly wary of Felix because of the chain against his forehead. He paid no mind to them, only sighing when people pointed out that Felix's chain was on his head instead of on his shoulder's like Jeongin's and Minho's or on their wrists like all of the people of Skylight.

Those looks stopped when the left the river town only for it to happen again once they reached another town.

And then they reached Leam...

From where he's standing, the village of Leam looks to be about the size of the Firelight community in Wishlight and unlike the other villages of Skylight, there's a wall around the small town. Aside from palace cities, Felix has never seen a walled town before which raises a couple of hairs on his nape. What was the purpose for the wall? What were they trying to keep out? Or was it something they were trying to keep in?

Minho leads the small party downhill where they are greeted with a disgruntled farmer who only blinks as they pass before continuing to tend to his crops. The sun has already descended leaving the sky in soft shades of pinks, purples, and blues. There's a couple of clouds in the sky but they're quickly moving on.

When Felix passes through the gate, he was expecting something to happen like maybe a guard or some kind of barrier, but there's nothing. The guard post is completely empty but there's people milling around the village. Some of them stare at Felix for a quick moment before bowing their heads and moving on like nothing happened.

Felix stops his horse when an old woman is about to pass by. "Excuse me," he says and the woman stops. She smiles warmly at him. "I was looking for the inn. Would you mind pointing me in the right direction?"

"Just keep going straight, young man. Look for the sign with a boar on it. Miss Lee loves her boars."

Felix smiles at the woman before she leaves with a wave. He watches her, an odd feeling passing through his body.

"Felix!" Jeongin shouts. "Come on!"

He blinks a couple of times before nudging his horse to continue on.

"Is something wrong?" Jeongin asks when Felix walks beside him.

"No?"

"Why does that seem more like a question than an answer," Minho snickers.

"It's just, I know people aren't the same but the woman didn't look at me in disgust like the other villages have. It was almost like, she was used to seeing different chains on people."

"Well is this supposed to be the town you come too before you head to the water temple," Minho points out. "And just because you’re born into certain kingdom doesn't mean any temple should turn you away. All the temples will have disciples of all the kingdoms."

Felix hums at that, spotting a sign with a boar and the words _Miss Lee's Inn_ in big bold letters. He points it out as well as a stable where they're able to leave their horses for the night. Both buildings are made from wood that looks like it's been painted on. The inn itself is three stories high with a few windows out in the front. Minho enters the building first.

The inside of the inn looks like Felix would have expected it to look like. Wooden floors and walls, a massive room to the back that looks like it has long tables for the guests, a couple of doors down a hallway, and set of stairs that climbs to the rest of the building.

"Hello! Welcome to Miss Lee's Inn!" says the lady at the front desk. She looks a little bit older than Jeongin with pale skin, long blonde hair that's plaited down one side, and bright green eyes. She wears a wrap type shirt that's most likely tied at her side and a pair of high waisted purple pants. Looped around her waist a couple of times is a thin belt with tassels at the ends. Her fingers drum against the counter, the gold chain on her hand glinting when the light catches it. "How may I help you?"

"We would like a room here please," Jeongin says.

"But of course. Would you be staying in the same room or would you like different ones?"

Felix opens his mouth to answer the question but Minho cuts him off, a sly smirk on his face. "Two, please. One for me and one for this pair of lovers."

"Oh," Jeongin whispers while Felix flushes. 

"Minho!"

"Lord Hansol isn't the only one who gave me a mission to do. I will fulfill Soonyoung's mission with the same grace as Lord Hansol's."

Felix didn't mind sharing a room with Jeongin, in fact he _wanted_ to share a room with Jeongin as they were already used to sleeping at least near each other. Jeongin did _stay_ in Felix's house when he was visiting it the community. So it should be fine.

"Very well," chirps the innkeeper. "A single and a double. We'll have those ready for you shortly." She smiles to herself like she has a little secret. She looks to Felix before looking to the door a little sadly.

"Is everything alright?" Felix asks also looking at the door in question.

The innkeeper looks a bit startled at Felix's question but she smiles and waves her hand. "Yes, everything is alright. Let me get started on those rooms for you." She leaves.

Felix looks around, his eyes landing on the single painting in the room. He stares at it taking in the beautiful lake with an island in the middle. The painter mixed blues and purples to get the lake water just right. Green and brown marks the trees surrounding the lake giving it a more serene feeling. He turns his head to look away when his eyes catch something in painting. He walks closer to see thin lines underneath the lake like there's something massive under the water.

"Are you alright with sharing a room with me?" Jeongin asks causing Felix to whirl around and look at Jeongin. The other man chuckles at Felix's expression.

"Why wouldn't I be? We've shared a room before."

"I am just making sure." Jeongin leans closer to Felix forcing heat to his face.

Mentally Felix begins to scream because how _dare_ this asshole gets super close to his face like this. His heart is pounding wildly inn his chest and really hates how attractive Yang Jeongin is. But that's not all? During their travels, aside from having his daily debates with Minho, he would do little things that would make his cheeks red, from finding little flowers and putting them in his hair to making sure people didn't stare too long if they stared at his headchain. It's just all too much.

And he knows, yes, he _knows_ that this quest from the gods needs to get done and that maybe this isn't the time for this but when it's Yang Jeongin courting him in the way that he is, how can he not flush from embarrassment or from how kind this man is.

Felix stops his thoughts when he realizes that he's sounding like a young teenage girl. More heat rises to his cheeks perhaps mocking him at his thoughts.

"Okay," he says, looking away from the eyes boring into his. Jeongin chuckles before stepping away.

He needs to stop thinking things, he truly does.

Felix catches Minho's eyes, the little shit of a friend laughing behind his hand. It's like he knows what's going on in Felix's mind and he hates it. Looking around to see if Jeongin is looking or if the innkeeper has come back, he flicks Minho off before looking back to the painting. He ignores the cackling laughter coming from behind him.

The innkeeper comes in then, smiling at Jeongin and Minho, before looking at Felix. She looks behind him.

"Do you like that painting, there?" she asks.

"It's beautiful," he says.

"It's of the lake up ahead. Lake Mikleo. It's also home to the water temple and the disciples devoted to Lord Junhong."

Felix looks back at the painting. "Is that what this shape in the water is?"

The innkeeper walks towards the painting. "Shape?"

Felix points to the faint outline that looks like it was penciled in. The innkeeper gasps when she sees it, staring more at it before looking at Felix. "I've never noticed that."

"Oh?"

"But you may be right because you see, the water temple is actually underwater." She points to the island. "There's a door that's supposed to be here and that door has stairs that leads to down to the main part of the temple." She begins to chuckle. "It's always been my favorite part of the temple, going down the steps and looking out the windows to see all the animals that live there. Sometimes, the water disciples will even bring back creatures that can only be found in fairytales, claiming they're purifying them." She trails off before shaking her head. "But enough of that. Let me lead you to your rooms. If you would please follow me."

Felix glances at Minho and Jeongin who both wear a thoughtful expression on their faces. They found water temple and Lake Mikleo but how does one get there?

The innkeeper leads them one set of stairs to the second floor. She opens one of the doors which has a single bed in it and another one that Felix can only guess has another single bed.

"Dinner will be shortly," She says. "As you three are my only guests, I will come knock on your doors when it's ready."

"Thank you," Minho smiles. 

The innkeeper nods them, a thoughtful look crosses her face before leaving once more. Minho gives Felix and Jeongin a look before stepping into the room with the single bed and shutting the door but not without a snicker and a sly smile from him. Felix mentally groans.

Jeongin has already entered the room and leaves the spot by the window open for Felix. He smiles fondly at the thoughtful gesture before looking at the room. With the massive single bed in the middle of the room, it leaves space for two side tables, one for each side, a door to the washroom, and a low table in the center. It's a simple room which is honestly, just right.

Felix flops onto the bed, the bag tied his belt jingling at his movements. Untying the bag with the gems, he lifts them towards his face. Maybe it's because they're about to start really charging these gems and asking about Chan's soul to the leader of temple, do doubts form in his mind. It's not the same doubt of 'am I doing the right thing' but more of the doubt of 'can I really do this'.

He rolls over and dangles the bag in front of his face.

"Do you think that I can do this? Revive Chan?" he asks Jeongin who stops going through his bag.

Footsteps sound just as the bed dips and Felix looks towards Jeongin who sits on the bed.

"It's been on your mind, saving your kingdom since it fell and now you're about to actually do that. I've never seen anyone so dedicated in trying to save their home as much as you do. So yes, I believe that you can save your kingdom and even if you don't think you can't, Minho and I are here to help."

Felix looks back to the bag. "Even if it's already fallen?"

"The material things are gone, yes. But those can be replaced. The lives that you've found and protected, the people who live within Moonlight and Skylight, and the lives that are under Starlight rule, they are your kingdom."

Felix hums at the response. He knows that his thoughts are being a little silly but this is important and the doubts that cloud his mind are being stupidly persistent.

"Beside, aren't you supposed to be a phoenix?" Jeongin asks.

"What?"

"A phoenix."

"I don't get it."

Jeongin stares at Felix for a moment before breaking out in a fit of giggles. "Think about it, Lix."

Someone knocks on the door.

"Dinner, sirs," comes the innkeeper's voice.

Jeongin leaves the room, throwing a laugh back to Felix who just stares at the door. He takes a deep breath and shakes his head, his mind trying to figure out what Jeongin had meant. He thinks about it as he leaves the room and heads down to where he saw the long tables. Minho, Jeongin, and the innkeeper are already sitting down with steaming bowls of soup in front of them. He's so deep in trying to figure out Jeongin's words and trying to push away the doubt that had filled up that he misses most of the conversation floating around the table.

"Its been a couple of months since we last got visitors here," the innkeeper laments forcing Felix out of his mind. "People haven't been coming to give thanks to Lord Junhong since the temple closed its doors."

"Closed its doors?" Felix asks.

"Yeah. It was about two months ago or so when they shut. Even the gatekeeper left his post to go back to the temple and hasn't come back."

"The gate keeper?" asks Jeongin.

"Did something happened?" questions Minho.

"Yes the gate keeper in the front. They guard the gate when they do purification rituals incase of monsters. We've been attacked several times because of the leaking negative energy that comes from the ritual. Monsters like it and try to consume most of it, killing each other and anything in their path." She sighs looking in between the three of them before nodding her head. "But for what happened, no one is really sure. We know that the day before the temple doors closed, they had brought back some kind of creature that needed to be purified and like always they sent a gate keeper to check for monsters. The night passed and we heard nothing coming from the lake. When we went to go ask the gate keeper if everything was alright, he was gone. Naturally, we tried to see what was happening but a serpent begin to appear at the lake, attacking anything that moved and because of it, we haven't been able to get to the entrance."

"Have you contacted the any other temples?" Felix asks. 

The innkeeper nods. "Almost all of them. The Temple of Flora is one of the furthest from here but there're the only ones who have contacted back. They're supposed to be sending some disciples soon..."

"But you're worried."

"Yes. The water god disciples are some of the kindest souls I've met and for them to have been missing for a couple of months is rather odd." She takes a deep breath and moves her spoon in her soup. "I know it has to be because of the purification ritual. It's the only thing that makes sense."

"Do you know what kind of creature they took in?" Jeongin asks.

"I'm not sure but if this serpent has appeared, then I can only think that it was what they brought in." She sighs, finally setting her spoon down. "I'm not strong or brave enough to venture to find out what happened. Leam already had many deaths to the beasts. Friends of the disciples have tried to fight the monster and venture into the temple, but none of them have come back. We can only fear the worst." She smiles kindly at them. "I don't know what your business here in Leam is, but I only ask that you be safe when you're out there and beware of Mikleo Lake for now."

"Well that's fun," say Minho. "That's where we need to go!"

The innkeeper blinks in surprise "What?"

"We're here to go to the water temple. I need to ask them something," says Felix.

"Is there any way that you can wait until the Temple of Flora gets here? It's too dangerous there."

"Do you know how long they'll be?"

"I don't."

Felix looks at Minho and Jeongin who nod before smiling to the innkeeper. "I'm afraid not. We'll think of something to do about the water serpent before we go."

The innkeeper, sighs. "Then please be careful. May Lord Junhong be with your souls."

The path to the water temple is through the forest at the back of Leam. Because of the wall, there's only a paved road that the temple disciples had created in order to reach Leam and gather supplies. At least that's what the innkeeper told them before they left. The actual road looks big enough for a cart to come through. Branches of trees provide shade over the road with pillars of lights that seem to light up at night. Around the road are flowers of different colors as well as shrubs. Various animals hid themselves in the leaves of plants or on the branches of trees. Birds chirp and small mammals chatter, almost like they were talking to each other.

But the more Felix walks down the road, the quieter it gets. The silence unnerves him, sending shivers down his spine. A forest this size isn't supposed to be this quiet the more you walk. There's always some form of sound.

"There's no animals anymore," Jeongin says, looking around. "Nor is there any sound."

"I noticed," says Felix. 

"Maybe they were eaten by the serpent?" says Minho.

Jeongin shakes his head, his fingers tightening on his war hammer. "This far? I doubt it. The innkeeper's story makes it seem like it's a water serpent, not one that's both. Besides if it was both, I don't think the temple of water would be the ones purifying it."

Minho shrugs. "Then they've been scared off."

"Maybe."

The road continues as does the silence and before he knows it, there's a quiet sound of lapping water. Felix stops walking for a second to listen.

"Water," he says. "We're near the lake."

He takes another step and wrinkles his nose.

"What is that smell?" Jeongin asks, covering his hand over his face. "This is nasty."

And it is. The stench is so putrid that Felix's eyes were staring to string around the edges and water. His stomach begins to roll like he's getting sick. It's just disgusting and like the smell of...

Oh.

Felix looks around once more and spots what he's looking for. The sight causes his to freeze before looking away. It's not like he hasn't seen a dead body before, he's seen plenty of them thanks the war but to see a pile of villagers mixed with animal chunks is something else entirely. He hears Jeongin's and Minho's breath hitch followed by the sound of someone trying to gag.

"That's disgusting," Minho says.

"It really is," Jeongin agrees.

"Keep walking," says Felix. "We shouldn't stay too long around this."

He grabs onto Jeongin's and Minho's wrists pulling them away from the rotting flesh. He pulls them until they're standing at the edge of a massive lake with an island in the middle. Felix's eyes widen as he drops the wrists in his hands.

The picture in the inn was beautiful but it's nothing compared to the actual beauty. There is the island floating in the middle of the lake, looking as beautiful and majestic as the painting but unlike the painting, is the entrance to the water temple. From where he's standing, he see tall pillars made of stone and marble. They're scattered around the island, almost like they're making a shape. A circle maybe? An archway stands a little bit taller than the rest, letters of a language Felix's can't read fill the empty spaces. The archway stands above a decent size building with closed doors. Around the island are white flowers gently moving against the small breeze that passes through.

Felix's eyes trail to the water. While the painting had mixtures of blue and purple, the real thing has nothing as it's clearer than anything he's ever seen more. He can see the reflection of the building rather perfectly as well as any space lake life swimming around.

"I was going to say something about the water serpent but..." Jeongin trails off.

"The painting doesn't do it justice," Felix says.

"There wasn't a temple in the painting," Minho points out.

"And now I understand why. I don't think there's an artist that can capture how amazing this is."

Minho shakes his head. "It is pretty but wait until you see the soul temple. Tell me then which one you think is prettier."

Felix turns his to Minho who has a smug smile on his face, however Minho's eyes are still looking at the entrance. He snickers at the awe of Minho's expression when his eyes catch the swaying of the same flower where they're standing. Turning to look at the flower, he spots a dock the same size as the road. But with a dock, normally there would be a boat or something to take them across but nothing is there.

"There's no boat," Felix says pointing to the dock.

"Then how do we cross?" Jeongin asks.

"There has to be something."

Minho begins walking, following the shoreline. "Maybe there's something along the shore. This can't be the only dock because I can't see a temple disciple just standing here by themselves waiting for people to cross. There has to be a place where they can rest and dock more boats in case of festival or something."

As they walk around the lake looking to a boat house or something similar, Felix continues to look around the shore and glancing at the temple. The air around the lake feels peaceful. Like you could dip your feet into the water and nothing but the coolness surrounds your feet, embracing you like a wet blanket. But there's something else. Something that brings a sense of danger to the peacefulness.

His eyes drift to the water under the island. It looks different from the crystal clear water by the shore and like something is hiding underneath it. He can't really tell as he's too far but he's almost positive there's something black wrapped around an object. In the background he can hear Jeongin yelling that he's found something but he keeps looking at the black object in the water. His eyes follow the object trying to see if there's at least a hint of what could be in the water, but right now there's nothing.

That is until he sees something red and silted. Almost like a feline's eye.

Someone clamps a hand on Felix's shoulder startling him out of his staring.

"Are you alright?" Jeongin asks when Felix faces him. "You were staring at the water pretty intensely."

"Yeah, I just thought I saw something..." he trails off when he looks back at the water, the red feline eye gone. "But maybe it's my imagination. What did you find?"

Jeongin leads him more around the shore when he spots it. A small white building with low windows stands in front of him. It looks to be almost the same as the temple across the water with a couple of pillars and smaller archway over the building. He breaks a little ways away from Jeongin to standing in front of one of the pillars, his fingers running over the minuscule designs carved into stone.

"It's beautiful," he mumbles.

"And the boats are at the bottom of the lake," Minho says.

Minho stands on one of five docks peering down into the lake. He gives Felix an exasperated look when the Firelight knight makes his way over. Indeed are the boats at the bottom of the lake. All five of them have holes in the middle like something had purposely made them to sink.

Something clicks.

"The serpent," Felix says. "It was the serpent."

"Huh?"

He points under the temple. "What I was looking at earlier was a massive black shape in the water. At first I thought it was a cloud but there are no clouds in the sky. Then I thought it was just a shape of the temple that goes down but why would a building have feline looking eyes." He pauses. "No, not feline. That eye definitely belongs to a snake."

Minho and Jeongin stand next to him, looking into the water.

"Can you figure out how big it is?" Jeongin asks.

"Not really," says Felix.

"Is it just hovering in the middle of the lake?"

"I think it's wrapped around something."

"Maybe the underwater portion of the temple," Minho says.

"Maybe."

"We have to be careful when we cross then," Jeongin says before moving his gaze to the boats at the bottom of the lake. "We just have to figure that out first."

Moving from the dock to the shore, Felix stares at the building for a long second before looking away. There has to be another way to reach the island. He looks around the area spotting everything he's seen before. He sees the pillars, the docks, flowers, rocks, and shells scattered around but nothing to help them cross the lake.

Time passes with Felix walking around looking for anything but ends up sitting against the building with his feet stretched out, watching as Minho stares into the lake as he walks around and Jeongin walking towards him. He sits next to Felix and they both stare out at the temple.

"What kind of serpent do you think is in the water?" he asks.

"Something big enough to make those holes. Did you see the size of them?"

"I did."

"But I think as long as we don't disturb the water we should be fine. It didn't seem too keen on wanting to move."

"Or it's waiting for the perfect time to strike. It might see us as prey and waiting until we let our guard down. I'm pretty sure that's how snakes work."

"It could just be lazy."

Jeongin hum crossing his legs. When Felix looks at him, he notices that today Jeongin decided to pin three tiny braids on the side of his head. He can't help the way his mouth forms a smile when he see the little purple beads on the center braid. Jeongin's head turns and he raises a brow when he catches Felix looking at him. Felix smiles.

"Yes?" Jeongin asks and Felix shakes his head.

"Nothing."

Minho clears his throat which makes Felix and Jeongin look at him. Felix continues to smile at Minho's raised brow but he says nothing. The soulkeeper narrows his eyes before sighing and shaking his head, a small smile on his lips.

"If you're done flirting, then please come here. I found something," he says.

Felix scrunches his face before standing and following Minho who stands in between a pair of pillars. He points to island. "What do you see?" he asks.

He's looked at this side of the island for a while now and there's nothing that sticks out to him. The island is much like the boating area they are at. Pillars are everywhere on both sides. Nothing out of the ordinary.

"Pillars," answers Felix.

"Yes but what else?"

"They're also over on the island?" Jeongin questions.

"One thing I found out when I walked the shore of the lake, is that there is no dock on the other side," Minho says. "So if there's no dock or a place to put their boats, then how do the temple disciples come over here?"

"There's another way across," Felix says.

"Yes but like we've been looking, there hasn't been anything, correct?"

"Yes."

Minho smiles. "And if you look at those two pillars on the island and follow them here, don't they seem to be a little close to each other? Like maybe they _should_ be like that?"

Felix stares at the pillars in question before looking at the pillars he's standing in the middle of. He racks his brain, trying to think of a place that has two pillars in the same position as the ones on the island and the ones on shore.

"They're not pillars," Jeongin says suddenly. "They're posts. This is bridge."

What?

"Exactly. Water is used to conceal things or as a reflection. Of course they would hide the pathway across the water."

Felix nods in understanding. The element of water has many properties from concealment, just like Minho pointed out, to healing, and being a source of nourishment. From the little that Felix knows about the temple of water and it's temple disciples, he knows that they are expert healers as well as interesting assassins since they've learned the art of concealment. He's heard a story long ago about keeping a pot of water near you when sleeping.

"We need to put water where the bridge might be," he says. "The way to break a concealment enchantment is to pour water where we think the bridge is."

"But if we touch the water," Jeongin says.

"The serpent will come," finishes Minho. "It's the only way."

Felix stares at the water for a moment before sighing and shaking his head. It's the only they that they'll be able to see the bridge. They couldn't just cross where they thought the bridge is because what if they're wrong? They could fall into the lake and really become serpent food which doesn't seem to appealing.

"It's the only way," Felix says just as Minho leans down and places his hands in the water.

He waves his hands in the water before bringing them up again, letting water drops land in the middle of the ripples. He even goes through the means of flicking the water a little further away to entice the serpent but nothing happens.

"Do you want to look in the water again, Felix?" Minho asks.

"Fuck no," he responses. "You can do that yourself."

Minho laughs.

"Let's just start watering the bridge," Jeongin suggests. "I don't think we're going to get anywhere if we keep putting our hands in the water. The serpent knows that we're here and like I told Felix, it's just probably waiting for the right time to attack. If we're making little circles in the water, it's obvious that we know it's in the water."

"Then how do we do this?" Minho asks.

"I think there are buckets in the boat house. Surprisingly or unsurprisingly, it doesn't seemed to be locked. We can have one person getting a bucket full of water and the others fighting off the serpent if it comes our way."

Minho volunteers to be the one pouring the water on the bridge as his weapons would be ineffective against the water serpent in moderate range combat. If he's able to make it to the other side before Jeongin and Felix, he'll be able to shoot arrows to help them escape from the serpent.

Felix gets the bucket from the boat house and Minho begins to splash water on the bridge. It's a tedious task, watching the water for ripples because it's unknown if the ripples in the water are because of the snake or because of Minho's movements but Felix keeps his eyes on the black mass underneath the island. He doesn't dare look towards where he had spotted the eye earlier, not wanting to scare himself even more.

The black mass begins to move causing Felix to unsheathe _Haesbich_ and points it to the water. He hears Jeongin swing his war hammer towards the water.

"It's moving Minho," Felix says. "How much further?"

"Halfway."

The black mass begins to really move, Felix widening his eyes. He grips onto his sword tighter, yelling at Minho to hurry. With a loud watery crash, the serpent breaks through the water, massive teeth being the first thing Felix sees. It reaches for Felix's arm, the knight jumping back a couple of steps before swing his sword. Minho lets out a yelp as he continues his job.

The serpent is bigger than anything Felix has seen before. Its scales aren't actually black but a deep cerulean and the underbelly a dark grey. It has dorsal fins the size of Jeongin's forearms and a sword like horn on its head. The serpent screams, flecks of saliva dripping down on the already wet bridge before it snaps it's long incisors once more. The creature’s eyes are the same red that he saw earlier, the serpentine eyes wide open as it begins its attack.

The serpent keeps its teeth bared as it strikes in a rapid motion, the razor sharp teeth constantly scraping away the bridge. The rest of the creature slinks under the water as Felix tries to keep his balance. He's hated fighting on wet surfaces since he was a child as it's easier to make mistakes.

"Felix duck!" Jeongin yells.

Felix complies slamming his body on the ground. He stares into the water and notices that the serpent is dragging its body towards the bridge. It takes two seconds for him to realize what's about to happen.

"Minho! How much longer!?"

"I'm almost done!"

Felix hisses and forces himself up after he hears the swinging of Jeongin's war hammer. As the creature screams and hisses above them, he notices that there isn't a single scratch on the serpent. Their attacks aren't working and most likely pissing it off even more than it already is.

But if gets Minho across so they can run then it might be worth it.

"It's going to snap the bridge in half!" Felix yells as he dodges a fin. Just as he yells it does the bottom half of the serpent makes itself known.

Watching the snake curl against the water bridge reminds Felix of how once his Uncle Chul took him and Chan out into the wood for an adventure. It was out in the forest where he began his knowledge of different plants and animal but one always stood out. The king called it a spiked cobra and it was known for wrapping its body around its prey, squeezing the life out of the animal before eating it. And ten year old Felix found that fascinating.

But thirty three year old Felix found it slightly terrifying.

"Done!" screams Minho followed by the whistling of an arrow.

"Jeongin!"

Jeongin detaches one of the vials on his belt, tossing it at the serpent. The glass shatters and white smoke comes from the glass. The serpent screams, squirming around in pain. Jeongin rushes towards Felix, grabbing his wrist and pulling him along. They run across the bridge and are only a few feet away from the island shore when suddenly Minho is screaming, his face paling. A shadow covers Felix and Jeongin causing both of them to look up, the tail of the serpent is high in the air and over Jeongin's head.

Felix doesn't think.

He pushes Jeongin towards Minho the same moment the tail comes rushing down. It misses Felix by mere inches but the force cracks the bridge instantly. He plunges into the water, taking a deep breath, and shutting his eyes for a few seconds. He tries not to panic because now he's in the serpent's main playground. He opens his eyes, everything becoming a little blurry. He doesn't glance up as he begins to swim towards the shore, not wanting to know what the creature is doing, the sounds of its screams sounding muffled underwater.

His air supply is rapidly declining as he kicks faster. He glances down to see blue shapes, things that he can't make out when the force of the water changes. It pushes him towards the edge of the island where he feels something grabbing onto his back and pulling him up. There's a loud rush in his ears as air hits his face. He gasps releasing the little air he had left but the person who is holding onto him doesn't let go. They drag him, the feeling of dirt and grass changing to stone as he takes a couple of deep breaths.

"You idiot!" Jeongin yells at him.

"Yes, hello," Felix wheezes.

"You! You!"

Felix looks at Jeongin who looks like a wet puppy before sighing and letting his body rest against the ground. "Me? What about the serpent?"

Jeongin releases a long sigh of frustration and Minho kneels next to him. "The vial that Jeongin threw at it forced it back into the water," says Minho. "With the ripples silent, it's not going to attack again. At least, not yet anyways. There's a relived look in Minho's eyes before he smacks Felix's forehead causing him to yelp. "He's going to be alright."

"He better," Jeongin hisses before sighing once more. He extends a hand to Felix to which he grabs. He gets yanked up and patted around making sure that nothing is injured. Once he passes Jeongin's injured check, the Wishlight knight unwinds. "You're okay."

"I'm okay," Felix repeats.

Jeongin hums. They walk together taking in the closer sight of the temple. This time he could make out similar carvings to the ones at the boat house embedded into these pillars as well as more of the foreign language. They're carved in circles like a protection seal he's seen on Bonghwan's doors. That sense of peacefulness returns.

Minho is inspecting the door, poking and prodding the wood. There are no carvings on the door, only a thick bar of stone in the middle with a missing piece.

"It's a relief," Felix says, pointing to the empty space. "We need the missing piece in order to open it."

Minho sighs. "I know. I was just thinking that maybe there's something else, like a hidden compartment or something."

"Guys?" Jeongin calls out.

"Do you have an ide... Oh." Felix turns around when begins his question to see Jeongin staring at something or rather someone.

Standing next to Minho is a ghostly woman whose entire being is white. She has long hair, pupilless eyes, and knee length dress. She smiles at Jeongin and Felix, something spilling out of her mouth like water.

"Did yo- oh hello," says Minho.

She smiles and Minho, beckoning him to follow her. He stares at her for a second before following her. Felix and Jeongin look to each other before following the odd duo. The ghost woman leads them to the side of the temple where there are pillars forming a circle. She points to the center where there is a pedestal with a stone piece in the middle.

"That's the relief piece," says Minho.

He takes a step into the circle and the pillars light up causing Jeongin and Felix to stand on edge. Minho doesn't flinch as he continues to walk to the middle, grabbing the relief, and walking back. The moment that both feet touch outside of the circle is the moment the pedestal seems to break and the pillars fall.

"What?" questions Felix.

"I couldn't stop," Minho says while walking back to the door. "That's what she told me. I couldn't stop walking if not then relief piece would fall into the water and I would have to retrieve it."

Minho sets in the piece into the empty spot. The door ripples and opens, showing a stair way that goes down. The girl takes charge, looking over her shoulder to make sure the boys are following before beginning the descent. Minho wastes no time following her.

Inside of the temple is interesting to Felix. There are windows on both sides of the staircase to which he could see the moment they went under the water's surface. He stops walking to rush over to the window to peer out only to see a red eye looking back at him. He jumps back, bumping into Jeongin who holds onto his arms.

"Be careful," he says.

Felix smiles sheepishly at him before looking back out the window to see the eye gone but the massive body fills the window. He sighs wanting to see what the rest of the lake looks like but he'll be able to do that later, he guess.

They continue down for a little while, Felix peeking at the windows trying to see if there was something other than the serpent's body against the glass. There has been a couple of things floating in the water but they're so far that Felix really can't point them out, although the one that passes by the last window looks strangely humanoid. He goes to the window to inspect but Jeongin clears his throat.

"Later," he says. "Minho and the ghost lady are already inside of the temple."

Felix nods, glancing back out the window before following Jeongin inside of the temple. The smell of water is the first thing that hits Felix when he steps into the room that the first thing he looks for and finds are the small streams of water that flow gracefully. Water lilies float in the streams of water, some of them disappearing over the edge of what Felix assumes is a tiny waterfall. Where the water falls, there's a couple of steps that lead further down, and a giant statue of the water god, Junhong at the bottom of the room. The walls inside the temple are the same as the outside, with the only difference of the carved pictures. But that's not really what takes Felix's attention. It's the glass floor.

The glass floor is otherworldly as it shows the lake floor. Giant rocks sit at the bottom with schools of fish swimming through them. Different underwater plants that they could see from the shore are more visible and far more beautiful underwater than above.

"Holy hell," Felix breathes. "This is amazing."

"It really is," Jeongin agrees.

"The priestess says welcome to the Temple Mikleo, the water temple," Minho says, his eyes glued to the glass bottom. "Yes I can understand you."

Felix raises a brow. "Huh?"

Minho takes his gaze away from the glass bottom to smile at the woman. "I suppose I should introduce myself then. My name is Lee Minho and I am soulkeeper. I have been tasked with these knights for a mission given to them by Lady Yuju and Lord Hansol."

The woman looks surprised but nods her head in understanding. She waves her hands around and moves her mouth like she's talking, however, no voice can be heard, only the same ghostly liquid spilling out of her mouth. Minho stares at her, listening to her voice that neither Jeongin or Felix can hear.

"We have been tasked to charge elemental stones for a ritual. We've come to the water temple in hopes that you may charge the stone for us."

The woman continues to wave her hands around. Jeongin and Felix look to each other.

"I understand. Will you be willing to help us if needed then?"

The girl nods and Minho smiles.

"I thank you for your kind words." He looks at Felix and Jeongin, a swirl of uncertainty in his eyes. "This is the High Priestess of the temple, Park Jihyo. She tells me that a couple of months ago they were working on purifying one of the allied river serpents when she, the serpent is a female, released a toxin in the air that forced them all into a state of conscious slumber. Because it was the disciples who have angered the serpent, they cannot get close to the angry serpent to complete the ritual."

Felix's mouth forms an O. "She wants us to complete the ritual."

"No," Minho shakes his head the same time Lady Jihyo does. "We cannot complete this ritual. Only they can. Our job is to try and subdue the serpent enough for Lady Jihyo to do so. Once she completes the ritual, everything in the temple will go back to normal."

"And how do we go about doing that?" asks Jeongin.

"Through the travelling chamber which is a little bit below us. However, because the temple disciples are concealed, the temple deemed that there was no one inside and because of that, the temple has placed itself under lock down."

"We have to unlock the temple then," says Jeongin.

"Travelling chamber?" questions Felix. 

"Correct," Minho agrees. "Lady Jihyo will help us in the beginning, however she cannot stay in this form for long."

"Then we don't have any more time to waste," says Felix. "Lady Jihyo, if you please."

Jihyo smiles to them, more liquid spilling out of her mouth. Minho only shakes his head and gives Felix a "don't ask about it because I'll tell you later" type of look. The priestess catches this look and grins with her mouth wide open, a rush of liquid coming out causing Minho to sigh.

"That's going to take some getting used to," Jeongin says.

The priestess seems to laugh.

Minho walks down the steps and to the statue of the water god. Felix and Jeongin catch up to him while Jihyo walks slowly before picking a corner and standing in it.

"We have to do most of these puzzles ourselves," Minho says, reading a plaque on the statue. "Different puzzles."

Felix hums, looking around at the corners he couldn't see before. Behind the statue is another small set of stairs that lead into another room with a glass bottom. There's nothing in the middle of that room, only two more doorways with their doors closed. His eyes catch the corners of the room where two vines hang from the ceiling. He walks over to them, inspecting them before walking back to the group and following their gazes.

"What kind of puzzles are we doing?" asks Felix. 

Jeongin points to the plaque on the water god statue. Felix reads.

_In order to gain entry to our most precious rooms, find which has been lost._

"And that is?"

"Pearls," says Minho causing Jeongin and Felix to look at him. "There are four pearls that we have to find and place them on the relief." He points to the four empty slots underneath the statue. "The two doors in the other room will open up when we need them to. We have to figure out the first piece of the puzzle."

"Will she tell us what we have to do?" asks Jeongin.

Minho shakes his head, turning to face the rest of the room. He looks around, taking in the same sights that Felix did not a few minutes before. "No. She's saying to think of this as a test to trust our goal. Many people have wanted them to charge gems but most of those have been used to create chaos and not tranquility."

"Then let's continue to look around," declares Felix. "There has to be something that we can solve first."

Jihyo moves from one of the corner to stand by the statue of Junhong while Felix and the others begin to really look around

Felix goes into the second room to explore but nothing surprises him as it looks much like the first room with nothing hidden but two more sets of vines. He goes up the vines again, staring at them but finding nothing out of the ordinary. To him, they're just hanging vines that is most likely roots coming from the trees on top of the island. He glances away from the vines to look at shells in the walls. They're of all different shapes, sizes, and colors. He runs his fingers on the ridges of the shells almost like he's trying to cut his finger against the rough edges.

"Have you been able to find anything?" calls out Jeongin.

"No," yells Felix. "All I've found are shells, and vines but I don't think they really mean anything."

He steps way from the wall and walks back to the statue where Jeongin stands with his arms crossed over his chest. He stares out into the room, looking for something that stands out. Minho stands by the water lily streams, peering into the streams looking for a clue there.

"We have to think like before," says Minho. "We thought of the water bridge to cross over or really I thought about the water bridge. You two were busy flirting at the boat house."

Felix's cheeks heat up. "We weren't flirting."

"Are you sure about that?" asks Minho, glancing over his shoulder. "I'm pretty sure that you were indeed flirting while we were busy trying to come to the island."

"We were talking about getting over, thank you very much," replies Jeongin. "Felix was the one who stopped talking for some reason."

"Jeongin, please," Felix nearly yelps.

Jeongin snickers as does Jihyo. There's a soft smile on her face almost as if she's used to talks like this. She catches Felix's eyes and continues to smile before looking over his shoulder. Felix smiles back and continues to look through the room for anything that could lead them to a clue.

Jihyo comes into Felix's field of vision, waving her hands around. She looks him dead in the eyed before looking over his shoulder. Felix blinks a couple of times before deciding to follow her gaze. He walks towards her and stands next to her, facing the same direction. She looks at the vines that Felix was looking at earlier and doesn't move.

The vines?

Felix goes back to the vines in the first room, looking them over again. There are two vines in this room and two vines in the other room.

Oh.

The vines are the first puzzle.

"I think I have something!" Felix calls out. Minho snaps his head towards him while Jeongin continues to watch him.

"What?" Jeongin asks.

"Well the priestess here was looking to this corner," he points to vine next to him, "and there's a hanging vine next to these shells. I went around the rooms and I found three more hanging vines with shells in the wall."

"So we?" Minho questions, a blooming smile appearing on his face.

Felix yanks on the vine, a loud and ugly sound vibrates through the room. He covers his ears the moment he pulled on it and feels his body shaking with the vibration. He can see Jeongin and Minho doing the same while Jihyo snickers.

"It looks like we pull on them," he says after he's taken his hands away from his ears.

"Please don't do that without any warning. My fucking ears." Felix smiles sheepishly and Jeongin shakes his head. "Never mind that. Is there an order in which we do so?"

Felix looks back to the vine and glances at the shells. Off the top of his head, he doesn't remember the number of shells next to the vine in the other room, but this one has four larger shells. Much like the shells in the other room, they are of different colors and various lengths.

"Would one of you check the walls beside the vines?" Felix asks. "I might have something else."

"What am I looking at?" Jeongin ask, already walking to the other room.

"Shells."

"Shells?"

"Shells. I'll explain in a moment, just check please."

It takes a moment but he already has an idea of what needs to be done. If there are four vines, then there's an order that they need to be pulled in. And if Felix is standing at vine number four, then the first vine that has to be pulled is either the other vine in this room or the two vines in the other room.

"They all have shells," Jeongin shouts. 

"What are the numbers on the ones you're looking at?" he questions. "Minho, can you please go to the other room and head to the vines that Jeongin isn't at?"

Minho nods his head before going to the other. Felix's gaze lands on Jihyo who has already gone to the last vine. She smiles at him, liquid spilling from her mouth but she does nothing else.

"Three," Jeongin says.

"One," Minho says.

"Great! Now Minho, pull your vine. Tell me when you're done!"

One second passes. "Done!"

"Lady Jihyo, if you please."

Jihyo ghostly hand wraps around the vine, yanking it down and yanking it down hard. She nods to him.

"Jeongin!"

Another second passes. "Done!"

Felix wraps his hand around the vine and pulls on it. They all wait for a couple of seconds before there's a soft chime coming from somewhere within the temple followed by a rumbling.

"What the fuck?" says Jeongin causing Felix to turn around and look at the other room. He stares wide eyed as he watches another statue rise up from the ground. This statue, however, is a statue of a shell with more missing relief pieces, and the one piece that they currently need, a pearl.

"The pearl," says Felix. "Bring it here."

Jeongin grabs the pearl and runs to Felix, putting it into one of the slots. Minho stands in front of the shell statue, studying the new puzzle piece. Felix and Jeongin hurry back to Minho as he runs his finger over the strange spaces.

"They look lik-" Jeongin starts.

"The shells on the wall." Minho finishes for him.

Felix runs to the nearest shell wall. He runs his fingers over them again before poking them but it doesn't work. He doesn't want to pull on the shells because he don't want to break the delicate former homes. They're too beautiful to actually lose them to a break.

"But how do we get them off?" Jeongin says as he comes up behind Felix. He pokes the shell on the wall. "They don't look like they're going to come right off."

"And it wouldn't be wise just to yank them off," replies Minho, also coming over the wall with the shells on it. He looks them over before looking around the room to see if there's anything they could use to extract them off the wall. "We don't want to break them in case we can't put them back together."

"We may not have a choice. There are no tools around to help us properly get the shells off. We just have to be careful when pulling them off the walls."

Jeongin once more tries to carefully dig his fingers under the wall but it doesn't budge. He tries a couple more times, Felix and Minho watching him, but nothing happens. The shells don't come off.

"I don't get it." Jeongin complains. "How are we supposed to take them off then? We can't press them nor can we peel them off the walls. There's also no tools we can use to try and take them off."

Minho crosses his arms over his chest and stares at the shells. "And you're sure we don't want to break them?"

Felix looks at the shell before pressing on it. "What good would that do? It would just break and since we don't have any tools, then we don't have anything to fix them with. "

"And why would we break the puzzle piece that we need?" Jeongin asks.

Minho doesn't say anything for a moment, gently pushing Felix's finger away from the shell. He pushes in the center of the shell, nodding to himself like something makes sense. "Are you positive?" he asks again. 'Because this shell seems pretty soft and..." The shell snaps in half, "easy to break."

Jeongin stares at Minho in shock and then anger while Felix just watches everything. "Minho! Why did-"

"Look!" Felix says, watching how the shell in the wall becomes nothing but dust and falls to the ground. Nothing happens for a moment before the shell dust slowly begins to move, using the floor as a means of getting around. It slowly begins to climb up the shell statue and situate itself in the proper shell slot before reforming and looking brighter than when it was on the wall.

The room turns silent minus the faint trickling of water coming from the lake. Minho grins in triumph, leaving Jeongin and Felix terribly confused.

"What?" Jeongin asks, turning his gaze to the shell and staring at it for a long time.

"One of the properties to water is to heal, right? By healing you can also regenerate what was lost." He says this as he breaks the other shells in front of him.

"The puzzles are water based?" questions Felix.

"Well it would make sense. We are in a water temple after all." replies Jeongin.

"That's not what I meant," says Felix, waving his hands around. "We have to use the different meanings of water to figure out the puzzles."

"Then how would the first puzzle, the pulling of the vines fit into a meaning of water?"

"These look like v-"

"They're violet roots," Minho says cutting off Felix. He smiles in apology to which Felix shakes his head and motions for Minho to continue. "I'm guessing those white flowers from above are the cause of it. I'm sure there's a spell enhancing the flowers around the lake bed that have them all the way here."

"And violets are the flowers of the water god."

"I feel like I'm back in classes learning about the gods again," Felix groans, rubbing his hands against his face.

"I bet you were a wonderful student," Jeongin contemplates. 

Snorting Felix shakes his head. "No I was the annoying and loud one." There's a fond smile on his face. "At one point, we had an exchange student from Moonlight and he was just as loud as I was and our teachers _hated_ us because we wouldn't shut up. He would pull these awful pranks on everyone and it was just chaos."

"He sounds like a handful."

"He was but he was also kind and thoughtful."

"Have you seen him since then?"

Felix nods as he walks into the other room. "A few times. When Chan had visits to Moonlight, of course I went with him and we spent a couple of days with Jisung out in the beaches and caves. Jisung was always exploring things and looking for an adventure." He finishes just as he begins to break the shells, his eyes following the dust as it rolls on the floor.

"Jisung?" Jeongin asks incredulously.

"Yeah. Han Jisung of the noble House of Cancer."

Felix finishes breaking the shells and turns around to go to the other vines but Minho is pressing on the two shells. He walks back to the second room, where he stands in front of the shell statue, watching as the shells magically appear out of thin air before looking to Jeongin who looks shell shocked.

"House of Cancer? The House next in line for the throne?" he asks.

"That's the one but since Moonlight is a matrilineal kingdom, the throne is going to Minji, Jisung's half sister."

There's an impressed expression on Jeongin's face before he shakes his head. "How are you always meeting impressive people? First you're the nephew to King Chulyoung which means you grew up with Prince Chan, which by the way, you've stopped calling him Prince Chan. And then you know a flower fae who _gave_ you the title Flower Knight, which is only given to someone a flower fae can trust completely. And then you know Seo Changbin, the Aviary prefect. And now Han Jisung, the prince to be of Moonlight. How the fuck?"

Felix shakes his head, a small smile on his face. "It's all because of Chan."

"How many more people to do you?"

"Are you sure you want me to answer that?"

Jeongin pauses for a second before shaking his head. "I don't think I do anymore."

Felix smirks, his mind landing on a nice piece of information that he knows Jeongin is going to like. He debates about it just for a couple of seconds before he grins.

"I remember you telling me that you like ruins," he starts. Jeongin looks at him with wide eyes, "and now I'm suddenly reminded that Jisung also liked ruins. We were looking in some ruins that he believes might have been from the time of the gods and we met Lee Sungjong, Kim Myungsoo, and Kim Sunggyu when they were first starting. They were exploring the same ruins and they showed us around."

"You met _who_?" Jeongin nearly yells.

"Yes! They were super nice."

"How to live your life? I _love_ their work!"

"I know you do. It's why I told you."

Felix sees the moment where Jeongin realizes that he's been played a little bit. He narrows his eyes. "You're a little shit, you know that?"

The Firelight knight open his mouth to retort but Minho clears his throat. He looks in between the two of them, a smile mixed with annoyance on his face. He holds up a piece of parchment and a pearl. Felix blinks a couple of times before snatching the pearl out of Minho's hand and rushing into the other room, placing it into the slot.

He doesn't go back right away, choosing to take a couple of deep breaths before he goes back into the lion’s den where he knows Minho is about to tease the shit out of the two of them. But can Felix blame him? They were just talking back and forth like they do when they're working at the Firelight community. Maybe Minho won't say something.

"Are you sure you're not flirting?" Minho asks.

Maybe not.

"We weren't flirting," Jeongin says. "We were just talking."

"Are you sure about that? Because it seemed like you were. I mean, Felix, just ran off to hide where we can't see his face. He's in front of Lord Junhong, by the way, and I know that he's going to _love_ your love story. He's always hanging around Lord Seungkwan and always telling stories."

"Like _you_ can say anything," the High Knight of Wishlight retorts. "It's disgusting when you flirt with Prince Soonyoung. Those eyes he gives you when you're not looking makes me want to punch a wall or do something that would be considered manly."

"Can we just focus, now?" Felix walks back to the others, his face finally freed of heat. Mentally he shakes his head because he's confused on why he keeps acting like some kind of young maiden in love. He's not a maiden and he doesn't think he's in love, so why?

"If you try not to flirt," says Minho.

"You're annoying. Now what does the parchment say?"

Felix grabs the parchment out of Minho's hands and reads it over. He blinks not understand the question before reading it again. And again. His faces contorts into confusion and doesn't say anything when Minho takes it back.

"'I look flat,'" Minho reads out loud, "'but I am deep. Hidden realms I shelter. Lives I take, but food I offer. At times I am beautiful. I can be calm, angry and turbulent. I have no heart, but offer pleasure as well as death. No man can own me, yet I encompass what all men must have. What am I?'" He pauses for a second. "Well that still didn't make any sense to me."

"An ocean," Jeongin says. "The answer to that is an ocean."

"What?"

Before Jeongin can answer something in the room clicks and the scent of water lilies becomes fragrant. They look around and Felix sees one of the doors has become a see through mirror, showing a staircase behind it. He walks to it, trying to see what's inside but there's too many stairs and the door won't open. He does hear, however, more trickling water coming from inside.

"How the fuck did you get that?" Minho asks, his eyes wide and slightly confused.

"What? The riddle?" Jeongin asks back.

"Yes!"

"It was simple really. First of all, like Felix pointed out, we're inside of a water temple, which means the riddle is going to be water based. Second of all, water can be deadly and there's nothing more deadly than a stormy ocean. So an ocean."

Minho blinks a couple of time, his expression turning lost. Felix chuckles and he watches himself in the mirror door. "Do you understand?"

"A bit, yeah," says Felix with a smile.

Minho mumbles under his breath, words that Felix can't hear causing his smile to stretch out even more. He looks to the door and notices that there is plaque by the side of the door. Narrowing his eyes, he stares at the plaque until he can read it.

 _"_ _I am your reflection and will do what you do"._

What?

He looks at himself in the see through mirror. He sticks his hands out and mirror Felix does the same thing. He spins around, and mirror Felix does the same thing like it's supposed to do. It's a mirror.

Jeongin walks up behind and stares, the question of 'what are you doing' is all over his face. Minho walks up the mirror and peers in.

"What do you think this means?" Felix asks.

"What does what mean?" Jeongin questions.

This time it's Minho who tries different poses in the mirror trying to see if anything works but nothing. The door doesn't budge.

"I don't get it," he says as he looks to Felix. "And to answer your question, if I didn't understand the first riddle, what makes you think I can understand this one?"

"I was just asking," Felix says quietly, looking back at the plaque. He reads the words over and over again until he can see them when he closes his eyes.

"I just don't know. 'I am your reflection and will do what you do'. I mean it makes sense, it's a mirror and it's doing what I'm doing as all mirrors should do so I don't get it."

They continue to do poses until Felix mimics picking up the pearl. Minho and Jeongin watch in hopes that it would actually work but the door remained tightly shut. He tries to push the pearl, to nudge the pearl, to smash the pearl but nothing happens.

Felix lets out a frustrated groan, flopping onto the ground, and staring at his reflection. What in the actual fuck is this mirror?

"This is getting us nowhere," Minho states after a long stare down with his reflection. He had sat down before Felix, watching out of the corner of his eyes to see if there was something he was doing that he was doing differently.

"There has to be something that can give us clue," Jeongin sighs.

"Lady Jihyo?" Felix inquires but Minho shakes his head.

"She left after the first puzzle and can't come back until we reach the travelling room." He sighs. "She told me earlier that she wanted to finish this ritual by tonight and for a second there, I thought it might be possible but now? I highly doubt it. This puzzle makes no sense."

Felix stares at the door mirror again. From the floor, he moves his body in different angles, watching as the mirror does the same as always. A fleeting though passes through his mind.

The door is copying everything that he's doing, then would it copy him letting his reflection through?

He stands catching the attention of Minho and Jeongin and takes a deep breath. He doesn't want to get his hopes up because if this doesn't work then he doesn't know what will as they've thought of a lot of poses but nothing. Exhaling, Felix bows and motions an 'after you' movement to which his reflection smiles at him and walks towards him. His reflection disappears as the lock clicks, and the door opens.

"Oh," he says. "I get it."

Minho shoots up from the floor and spins Felix around. He looks him up and down, all over like maybe he's hiding something on his body.

"What the fuck?" Minho says. "What in the actual fuck?" 

"Oh?" Jeongin says. "Fucking _oh?_ What did you do?"

"I asked myself, 'after you'."

"Huh?" Minho says confused.

"I asked myself 'after you'," Felix repeats.

"After you?"

"After you."

Like with the riddle, Minho looks stumped like he's trying to process the information that Felix has given him but nothing is making sense. He blinks a couple of times as he shakes his head. "I don't understand but Felix got the door open. Let's get the pearl so we can continue on with this temple."

Felix is the first one through the door and down the stairs. The smell of the water lilies becomes stronger with each step as does the sound of trickling water. He's not sure what to expect but another massive room with a giant pond in the middle isn't it but that's what he gets. The room he steps into a circular and has many, _many_ water lilies inside of the pond. They float in small circles around the pool, some knocking into other lilies while others stay still. Some come in through two different holes in the wall, one looking like it's coming from where Felix had come from and the other from what Felix assumes is the other room, while some of the lilies look like they're leaving the room.

"Look," says Minho. "There's a pearl."

Felix stops looking at the lilies floating away and to the pearl in the center of the pond. It sits on a pedestal inside of a clam statue.

But this poses a question.

How the fuck do they get over there?

Felix is about to let out another loud groan when Jeongin walks next to him, carrying some kind of board in his hands. He smiles and gently puts the board in the water.

"It's a paddleboard," he says. "I can get the pearl like this."

Minho and Felix watch as Jeongin steps onto the paddleboard and balance himself. It takes a couple minutes of wobbling before he's able to push himself off the edge and into the middle of the pool. He's careful not to destroy any lilies as he paddles through and reaches the pedestal in a manner of minutes. The moment that he takes the pearl off the clam, however, there's a tremor coming from the pedestal causing Felix's breath to get caught his throat. The tremor stops just as a water lily comes from the secret compartment.

Jeongin doesn't move for a moment before he slowly makes a lap around the pond before handing the pearl to Felix and climbing out of the water. He smiles as he puts his hands on his hips.

"Done," he says.

 _Fuck,_ says Felix mentally. _"He's cute."_

Without a word out loud, Felix marches up the staircase, hoping that Minho didn't see anything. He wouldn't put it past him though. Minho is an observant little shit who likes to tease and Felix is easily flustered. Gods, why is he like this? He sighs as he walks through the temple and stands before the statue of Lord Junhong. He stares at the gods face, wondering if he would really like to listen to the story of Jeongin and him before he shakes his head. He doesn't have time to be thinking about this now. Maybe when they're on the road but for now, he has something more important to do.

Gripping the pearl a litter tighter than the first one he placed in the slot, he sticks the pearl in the last slot and a click is heard throughout the temple. A smile blooms on Felix's face as a loud cheer comes from Minho and Jeongin.

"Fucking finally. It took so long," Minho breaths, his body and expression filled with relief.

"It did and now we fight," Felix says as he walks over to the second door. There's nothing to solve to get the door open. They only have to walk through the door and Felix is very grateful for the small things. He won't be able to look another puzzle until sometime after this mission.

"What's the plan?" asks Jeongin.

"Don't die, says Minho rather smartly.

"Yes. Anything else?"

"Stick the pointy end into the monster."

"You're insufferable right now."

"I know but we've been stuck in two rooms for who knows how long and I was getting frustrated in seeing the same thing over and over again. Excuse me for being insufferable."

"Take a couple of deep breaths, Min." Jeongin mimics himself breathing. He doesn't stop until Minho joins him in breathing exercises. "We're almost done in here and then we don't have to step foot in here for a long time."

"Thank fuck."

Felix laughs behind one of his hands as he opens the door. Like the other stairs that lead down to the water lily pool, there's a set of stairs that lead down. Instead of rushing down like they had done before, each step they take is careful and thought out. Felix has his hand on the hilt of his sword while Jeongin's hand has already wrapped around the pole of his war hammer and Minho is walking a couple of steps behind them with his bow drawn.

Felix sees the body of the serpent which has him stop for a moment. He doesn't take a step down and instead crouches low on the stairs to see what it’s doing. The head of the creature is lying on glass with its eyes closed like it's sleep. The blue around its eyes look a little red from where Jeongin threw the vial in its his face. Slowly, he stands up and climbs back up the stairs, taking Minho and Jeongin with him.

"It's asleep," he whispers once they're about halfway up the stairs.

"What do you think?" asks Jeongin.

"I'm not sure."

"Do you think we can sneak up on it?"

"Maybe? As long as we don't make much noise?" [He looks to Minho. "We should get Lady Jihyo."

"Lady Jihyo will come when she's ready," Minho says with a shake of his head. He steps down a few steps, keeping his bow drawn in case of an attack.

"Then maybe we should wait?" Felix suggests. "We don't know what needs to happen for the ritual. The snake, does it need to be awake or asleep for the ritual? Do we need to draw blood or does it stay in tack? What needs to be done, is the real question. We should have asked this when Lady Jihyo was still with us."

"Then we go back down and creepily watch the snake monster sleep?" Minho asks.

"It's the only thing we can do at this point," Felix sighs.

Jeongin sighs before once again beginning the descent to the bottom. He keeps his steps light making Felix follow suit. Minho stays a little lower than them with his bow drawn, ready to attack the moment the serpent moves. Felix lies on one of the steps to look at all the nooks and crannies. He spots a couple of places where they can hide under if needed as well as a couple of tools that looked like someone had just thrown them in the corner and forgot about them. They would be fine when they fought the monster.

They would be fine.

A few minutes pass in silence causing Jeongin to let out a quiet exhale. He sucks in a breath and motions for Felix and Minho to shuffle closer to him. "We can plan our next step," he whispers. "Once we're done with this temple, where do we go next?"

"Maybe the Air Temple?" Felix suggests.

"Moonlight?"

The Air Temple is located on one of the Starfire Isles," says Minho. "It's nea-"

"It's off the coast of Firelight territory," Felix says quickly. He puts on a smile and nods. "It's the closest temple to Firelight aside from the temples within the kingdom. Besides, from what I remember about the Starfire Isles is that these set of islands are the last islands that belong to the Light Kingdoms. So I don't think we'll be able to make landfall anyways."

Felix tries to keep his emotions in check and at bay. He hasn't been back to the physical land of Firelight since the war and it's one of the things that he's not looking forward to. He doesn't know what his reaction is going to be when he goes back but if for a little while longer, he wants to avoid his homeland.

"We're going to have to cut across Firelight then?" Jeongin asks.

"We can't," says Minho.

"Right now Firelight is swarming with Starlight soldiers," Felix explains, "and Moonlight closed their ports to the rest of the kingdoms. We have to leave on a Moonlight port inside of the Moonlight Kingdom."

"We also need permission from Queen Taeyeon," says Minho. "The air temple is the only closed temple and only those with special permission are able to get on the island during the off season of holidays."

"So we're heading to Choseungdal," says Felix.

"There's no choice."

Felix nods and looks out. He doesn't like that they have to go to Choseungdal for the sole reason that he's not sure about how the queen. After she apologized for calling war on his kingdom and killing some of the people that he cared about and loved more than anything in the world, it just didn't feel right. He doesn't have to accept the apology and he doesn't have to ever want to accept it but it's just... odd.

"Do you think she'll allow us?" Felix asks after a moment.

"Queen Taeyeon is against the Starlight Kingdom and she's the one who told you about the prayer to the gods. I think it's safe to say, yes," says Jeongin.

"Minho?"

"She's the one who gave you the idea," agrees Minho. "I highly doubt she won't let us through."

They both have points. If she wasn't going to let them through to the air temple, then what was the point of telling the story about the little girl? Granted, Felix's quest is different from the story, but still he has quests from the gods themselves and it needs to be complete. Felix taps the stone underneath him. Maybe he'll pay closer attention to her when he meets her this time and maybe this time, his opinion on the queen of Moonlight will change.

To head to the Moonlight palace, we can head through the Moonlit Mountains or we can leave from one of the Skylight ports," says Jeongin.

He doesn't mean too but there's only so much that his mind can currently take about the kingdom of Moonlight, so he tunes out the conversation coming from Minho and Jeongin, who make their plans. He sits up a little bit and stares out into the giant pool where half of is being taken up by the serpent and the other half is open water.

Something flutters in the water.

His eyes narrow.

He doesn't like this.

Inside of the water is something pale. The more he narrows his eyes, the more he continues to see various colors that seem like skin tones coming from the water. That really can't be right. He licks his lips.

"Minho," he starts, his voice shaking. Minho and Jeongin stop talking. "You never told us why Lady Jihyo was spilling ghostly liquid from her mouth every time she opened her mouth."

He listens for a couple of seconds before slowly standing up. He glances at Minho who looks thoughtful for a moment before he looks away. Slowly, he begins his climb down the steps, further than Minho had went. He needs to see what the pale objects in the water are.

"Oh," Minho says after Felix has walked a couple of steps down. "Well if they're spilling water from their mouths, it means they've drowned but these are water disciples, they can't drown. They're petrified underwater."

Felix's feet touch the glass floor very carefully. He tries not make any unnecessary moves that would end up waking the serpent. What he had originally thought was sea grass or something similar moved away slightly but this time, he's able to point out a nose and closed eyes. He stops right at the edge of the pool where he can feel the serpent breathing, his eye widening.

"According to Lady Jihyo, all the water disciples are suspended underneath the temple. The serpent is acting like a rabid mother, snapping at anything that's coming their way."

That's a fucking _body_.

"Fucking hell. Felix step back," Jeongin hisses.

Maybe it's the hiss that Jeongin had let out or maybe it's because of Felix's presence but the serpent begins to move almost like it's waking up.

"Fuck. Felix."

Felix can hear them standing up but his entire body is frozen at the sight of bodies floating in the water and the shifting of the serpent. He wants to move and he probably should but his feet are frozen against the glass. His eyes never leave the passing body that floats by.

"Don't touch the water," Jeongin whisper shouts. "It's how we alerted it the last time."

Felix doesn't nod but forces himself to take a step back. The serpent shifts again, it's body rippling against the glass. Felix takes another step back and another one but this time the next movement is eyelids, one of them beginning to open. Felix stills once more, placing his hand on the hilt of his sword. He doesn't unsheathe it yet as he waits to see what the serpent is going to do.

"Oh for fucks sake," whisper Felix to himself as the serpent begins to rise.

With the sheer force of its body, the water within the pool creates small waves of water that begin to splash everywhere. It's a sight to behold but a sight that has the creature blinking his eyes lazily before landing on Felix who is almost to the staircase. They kind of stare at each other for a moment, both unsure what the other is going to do but Felix doesn't dare take a step. Instead, he watches at the serpent tilts its head to the right and to the left before lowering it and roaring in Felix's face.

Felix jumps back, narrowly missing the sharp incisors that graze his arms.

"Fucking hell! Felix pull out your sword!" yells Jeongin.

Felix doesn't have to be told twice. He pulls out his sword and dancing with the serpent that fights with his teeth. It's different this time, however, because they're in a much smaller space and the monster can't use its tail to do any damage. He glances towards the water, though. All the splashing of water causes the bodies to move in different ways. He winces when he realizes how they might end up being sore if they're caught up in the fight but he frowns after a moment swinging his sword and watching it bounce off the scales.

The water disciples are only in a state of petrifaction, does that mean if the serpent moves on accident, it might kill the people in the water?

That thought chills his body. They really need Jihyo to come.

"Is she here yet!?" Felix yells as he watches Jeongin join in on the fight.

He swings his war hammer in a full circle only for the face of the hammer to bounce right off.

"No!" Minho yells. "Not ye- Oh."

Felix stops paying attention to the Minho and pay more attention to the serpent. With its attention on Jeongin, he sneaks around the creature, trying to spot an opening only it doesn't like that. Without any warning, it throws its head towards at Felix, both of them colliding at the rapid speed. Felix grunts and gets pushed back a couple of feet, his body folding in half at the pain. He wheezes for a moment, fully aware that something broke something inside of his body.

The serpent goes to attack Felix again, however Jeongin yanks him to the side, his eyes filled with worry. He doesn't get the chance to ask anything though as the water creature becomes more relentless in its attacks and because of his injury, Felix is a lot slower than before. He jumps to the side as the reptile uses it's body as a heavy weight and slamming all over the place. Both Jeongin and Felix get caught in the slamming, Jeongin crying out because his leg get smashed and Felix nearly screaming because he wasn't moving fast enough. This time he nearly becomes a pancake, his body not moving from the ground. The glass is cool on his skin and it feels nice but he has to move.

"Minho!" Jeongin yells.

Felix peels himself off the ground, holding his sword with a shaky hand and the other holding his body. He's fought a monster like this before. It should be okay.

"Keep him awake!" Minho says. "He needs to be conscious for the ritual."

"Tell her to hurry!" Felix wheezes and he get the bright idea to stab the fucker of a lake creature in the eye. He doesn't know how he's going to do it but he can try.

Minho doesn't answer to that but suddenly the room is lit up in white and blues causing everyone to freeze and look at the colors in the room. It's faint but there's the sound of someone chanting, of people chanting but it doesn't sound scary. Instead, it sounds mysterious, alluring, and almost song like. He can't understand the language being spoken but Felix can feel himself relaxing to the melody.

Suddenly, all of the little ticks the serpent was doing to attack again freeze. It opens its mouth in a silent scream, something black comes out of its mouth. They all watch as it forms a ball above their head and grows smaller and smaller before it turns to tiny particles of air. The serpent screams once more before it slinks back into the water, resting it's head once more on the glassy bottom of the traveling room. 

The song continues and wraps itself around Felix like a warm blanket. The pain in his body begins to subside a little bit. He sighs in relief as he looks to his arms and watches them slowly begin to stitch themselves together. It's beginning to hurt to breathe but that's something that will be fixed over time and not by healing magic.

The song ends and the white and blue lights fade away.

"That was something," Felix grunts. He drops his sword to the ground and feels his legs give out a little. He drops to his knees.

"That was beautiful," Minho says with awe in his voice.

"That was amazing and kind of haunting," says Jeongin rushing to Felix. He puts his hands against Felix's back and helping him up. Felix sends him a grateful smile that Jeongin returns.

Before anyone can say anything else, a light comes from the serpent's slightly open mouth. The light circles around the room before hovering in front of Felix's face. Felix reaches to touch it but lets his fingers hover once he feels the faint warmth radiating from the light. He watches in mild awe as the light begins to flicker before it takes a human shape that Felix recognizes quickly. The room grows very quiet.

"Chan?" Felix whispers.

The flickering form of Chan only smiles before nodding. He looks much like Jihyo's ghostly form of all white but his features are there, the dimples, the nose, the light freckles that matches Felix's.

Chan's gaze leaves Felix and flicks to Minho. They look at each other for a long while.

Minho drops into a low bow after a few minutes. "Your highness. It is nice to see a part of your soul."

Chan nods again, white eyes looking towards Felix and Jeongin.

"We have been tasked with finding your soul. If you-"

Chan shakes his head almost violently.

"Your highness, plea-"

Chan continues to shake his head.

"Prince Chan," Felix's voice is soft and it must be one of tones that he barely uses because Chan stills. He doesn't looks at Felix though, which is fine. Felix keeps his gaze on the crown prince's ghostly form, Jeongin helping him take a couple of steps.

"Chan, please," Felix says quietly. "I... no we need your help. The people of Firelight need your help."

Chan turns around, his white eyes growing wild.

"He asks what's changed." Minho says.

"Everything."

Minho takes a deep breath. "He called you’re a liar."

Felix taps on Jeongin's arm to let him go and with some hesitation coming from the latter, he does. Felix does the only thing he can think of. He ignores his screaming body and takes a knee to the ground in salute. There's a sharp gasp coming from the direction of Jeongin and a hum from Minho.

(In this second, both Jeongin and Minho have realized something. While Felix talks about Chan with adoration and so much love, he also talks about Chan with respect and sheer loyalty to the man. Both them of know much Felix regretted watching Chan die and they both know that if Felix had the power to change the past, that he would in a heartbeat. It takes no time at all for both High Knights of Wishlight that right now, they're not watching Bang Chan and Lee Felix, the two friends that are almost like brothers. Right now, they're watching High Knight Felix and Crown Prince Chan.)

"Twenty years ago," Felix starts, "I took a vow to never tell a lie and I've taken that vow very seriously since I took it and I would never break it no matter harsh the truth is or if I need to tell a lie. Your people need your help, your highness. I need your help." He pauses before whispering quietly. "Changbin needs your help."

Felix look up and watches as Chan's form flickers violently at his words. There's an emotion within Chan's eyes that he's not sure if he's reading correctly but he doesn't comment on it.

"He says to rise," Minho says, "and that he'll come with us but for now, he needs to rest. Shattered souls cannot take a form for this long. We'll explain things as we go along."

Felix stays kneeling on the ground and gives Chan a smile. Chan's form floats closer to Felix, a ghostly hand places itself on his shoulder and Felix promises he hears "I missed you, Lix" being whispered in his ear. Felix closes his eyes for a moment and when he opens them, Chan's form is gone but in front of him is a tiny white orb. He stares at it for a moment before very carefully, he picks it up, the light warming his palm. It moves a little but there's nothing else.

"A soul orb." Minho walks closer, handing Felix small coin purse. Jeongin leans down the, mumbling something incoherent as he helps Felix back up. "This is a soul pouch. It will protect the soul from everything and anything as long as it stays in the bag. Prince Chan will mostly remain in this form and the more we collect his soul, the more the orb will grow."

Felix cradles Chan's soul gently when he picks it up. "Do you know why he was in the serpent?"

Minho shakes his head. "No but we'll find out when he's ready to talk."

Felix nods at Minho's response. He stares at the size of Chan's soul in his hand, the little orb is not much larger than a copper coin. With extra caution of not wanting to break the soul, places Chan's soul into bag and leans his weight onto Jeongin. Jeongin catches his eyes and smiles gently at him.

"Thank you," says Felix. "To both of you."

"Of course," says Minho.

"Always," says Jeongin.

With his free hand, Felix ties the bag to his waist just as the water begins to ripple and a body pulls itself up and out of the water. The first thing that Felix sees is dark brown hair that looks almost like chocolate with red and yellows entangled with in the strands. The person is dressed in blue and black, the wet strands of hair splay against the grass. The person forces themselves to turn over and lies on her back. Felix knows this face.

High Priestess Jihyo looks at them with icy eyes as she gasps for air.

"Please... help... us," she wheezes. "They... they will... they will drown."

Minho jumps into the water without a second thought. Felix moves to do the same but Jeongin holds him back.

"You're injured," he says.

"But the water will help. Besides, if we have to drag up the bodies, then I won't be able to," Felix says and Jeongin sighs letting Felix go.

He jumps into the water, the pain in his body surrounding him before leaving.

Unlike the first time he fell into the water, when Felix opens his eyes, he's able to see everything. He sees the slack body of the serpent out of the corner of his eyes and he sees the people of the water temple floating among the lake plants. Some of them have their legs tangled with the leaves and are still unconscious while there are some others who begin to gasp for air and kick water. Felix goes for those people first.

They don't fight him as he drags them to the opening in the traveling room, where the temple disciple is given to Jeongin and gasping for air.

It goes like this for a little while, some of the stronger temple disciples also dive into the water, grabbing their comrades and pulls them up while some water mages place air bubbles around Felix and Minho allowing them to grab more people from the water.

Once Minho pulls the last person into the traveling room, both he and Felix pull themselves up into the room, noticing how the room is completely filled and there's more people going up the stairs. Felix flops onto the floor and takes a couple of deep breaths.

They're done.

It was a couple of hours after Lady Jihyo put the serpent into a deep slumber did Felix, Jeongin, and Minho travel back to Leam with the High Priestess and a couple of her prefects. They passed the rotting carcasses where all of the temple disciples prayed for the souls of the deceased asking the gods to have mercy on them. Jihyo promised to have some of her people clean up the messes within the forest once they had gotten their strength back.

Felix lead the group into _Miss Lee's Inn_ where the innkeeper stared at Lady Jihyo before bursting into tears and wrapping the other woman in a hug. Lady Jihyo patted the woman on the back, mumbling the "I'm sorry for worrying you." The innkeeper, who introduced herself as Lee Chaerin, explained that Jihyo was like a sister to her, someone that she could look up too, and the person she went to when things were going wrong. She had gotten worried when Jihyo didn't show up for their weekly dinner that fell on the same day the doors of the temple closed.

"Normally it wouldn't have been a problem," Chaerin explained, the pad of her thumb running along her thumb. "But the next day she didn't show up and then the next."

Jihyo snorts. "You've always been a worrywart."

"Can you blame me, though?" Chaerin asks. "You're always out there risking your life and sometimes I wonder when Daniel is going to come by and let me know that you've died."

Jihyo stayed silent after that and Chaerin excused herself with tears in her eyes. The High Priestess just stared the way her sister went. Wanting to leave her with her thought, Felix and the others quietly said goodnight to the priestess who smiled at them before getting up and leaving most likely to find Chaerin.

That night was filled with terrors of serpent fangs and crushing bones for Felix. He woke in a cold sweat with Jeongin hovering over him, his dark eyes worried. Felix assured Jeongin that it was nothing with a wave of his hand, missing the look of slight hurt in Jeongin's eyes.

The next couple days were hectic as able bodied disciples, healers, and warriors would bring weak disciples who were under the serpent's spell for too long into Chaerin's inn. The couple of doctors who lived within Leam were already on standby the next morning after everything had happened. Felix, Jeongin, and Minho volunteered to help but Felix was turned away and ordered for bed rest by Jeongin, Minho, and one of the doctors. Felix being Felix, however, found a loop hole into helping by resting in a room with a couple of young water temple disciples. They looked to be no more than seven or eight but there was a light in their eyes that told Felix they would be ready to help take on any monster the world brought at them.

Felix told these disciples stories about his travels and old Firelight folktales and in return, the lights in the children's faces grew brighter. That was efficient enough for him.

Every night he spent in the room with the water temple disciples, Lady Jihyo would make her rounds, wishing the children good night and pressing a soft kiss to their foreheads. She stayed with them until they were fast asleep, one of the little girls holding onto the priestess hand like it was a lifeline. She would smile at Felix and thank him for spending some time with the injured children before leaving and continuing onto the next room.

But the night before Felix could actually move around and join in the efforts helping the disciples, Lady Jihyo came to him and sat on the edge of his bed. That night, her long hair was down in soft waves and smaller braids that interwove with a larger braid. She wore a long blue skirt that reached just under her breasts and was tied in the front and a light violet wrap around top that was tucked into the skirt. She folded her hands against her lap, the handchain glinting slightly in the light.

"I know it doesn't seem like a lot but I would like to thank you for telling these children stories. I've been worried about them these past few days and I'm thankful that you are here with them," she said.

Felix shook his head. "It was not a problem."

"They will miss you when you begin to walk around."

"And I will miss them. It was fun talking to them and I hope they become wonderful disciples when they are older."

Jihyo opened her mouth to speak, but a gentle knock sounds at the door where another temple disciple stick his head in. He bows to both Felix and Jihyo before whisking the High Priestess away. They never got the chance to talk with just the two of them once more.

The next night, Felix was allowed back into his shared room with Jeongin who fussed over him for the first twenty minutes before snicker and laying down. They hadn't really spoke during the time that Felix was inside one of the healer's room because Jeongin was busy helping anyone who needed it and caring for the doctors who sometimes forgot to eat. There was a couple of times, however, that when Felix was sleeping, he woke up to the feeling of someone brushing the hair out of his face but the feeling was too great that the moment he woke up and shifted his sleeping position, he was back asleep.

For the next couple of days, it had become a habit for both Jeongin and Felix to lie on the bed and talk about what happened during the day. Most of the time, one of them fell asleep before the other as the days were exhausting them to the core.

It was also during those days where Felix would hide himself in his shared room to pull out Chan's soul. He would speak to Chan's soul like the other man was still alive, also telling him stories about the day and the people he visited. He would also tell the deceased prince stories of Jeongin, how they came to be friends, and the day the other knight asked if he could court him. Felix's heart was pounding during those times, a small smile on his face when he thought about the other man and began wondering if this is what Chan went through when he realized that he was in love with Changbin.

"You know you, Channie," Felix said one night, glancing at the door and making sure that no one was coming toward his room. "I'm not sure if I'm in love with him just yet. I know that I care deeply for him, but I don't know." Felix sighed before snickering. "I bet you anything that I'm worse than you when it comes to this love thing."

When Jeongin came into the room that night, stared at Jeongin before looking away and hiding his face in his pillow, mumbling to Chan of how unfair it was to have Jeongin smile at him like the way that he was.

By the end of the week, most of the water temple disciples were up and walking about, chattering to each other, and thanking the trio that saved them.

Felix still didn't know what happened the temple disciples but he wasn't sure if he wanted to know but it seemed that their time in Leam was beginning to run out. They still had four more temples to go to and they had been in Leam for over a week leaning closer to two already. They needed to get moving seeing as they need to cross through Skylight to reach the Moonlit Mountains.

They all met in Jeongin's and Felix's room where they discussed the routes and the small towns that they would have to pass through. Tonight would be the night they would ask Lady Jihyo about the gem and their departure would be in a couple of days.

They came down from upstairs ready to go look for Lady Jihyo when she smiled at them in the lobby...

Minho's hands are on Felix's shoulders as they walk down the stairs of the inn. The soulkeeper snickers in his ear, which he guesses is better than the constant calling out the other has been doing.

"One of these days, Lee," Minho says draping himself across Felix's back, "You're going to tell me what goes on in that room."

A loud whacking noise comes from behind Felix and is followed by Minho's low whine.

"What was that for?" he asks Jeongin.

"You're being an idiot," comes Jeongin retort.

Minho releases Felix from his death grip and shakes his head. "You've been spending too much time with Chaerin. Maybe it's a good thing we're going to be leaving in a couple of days, then."

"She's an effective teacher when it comes to shutting people up. I've learned a lot from her," Jeongin says in a matter-of-fact tone. "I think when our debates start again, that you're not going to have much leeway of bullshit anymore."

Felix snickers at this. "Oh how I long to see that. Now I can't wait to leave."

"You're leaving?" comes a soft voice once they reach the bottom of the stairs.

Lady Jihyo stands in front of the steps with Chaerin as if they were having a conversation. The priestess wears her normal attire of the long skirt and the tucked in wrap around top. Today however, her hair is up in a neat bun with her fringe framing her face.

"Not yet," says Felix. "In a couple of days, we will be."

"I see," Jihyo says, nodding to herself. "Well I guess it's a good thing that I came here then. With most of our disciples recovered I wanted to talk to you three about a couple of things. Shall we sit down and talk?"

Felix motions for her to make way into the dining room where she sits at the front table, neatly lacing her hands on the table as they all sit.

"I just wanted to say thank you once again," she says. "I know you're probably tired of everyone telling that to you, though."

Felix laughs while Minho and Jeongin smile.

"It wasn't a problem," says Felix. "I'm glad that all of you are doing well."

"Would this be the proper time to ask what happened?" Jeongin asks. 

Jihyo squeezes her fingers together and looks to the table. "I'm not sure if you're aware of the serpent you fought against as it's not very well known to those who don't know about river monsters. The serpent you fought is called the Azul and is it known to have high illusion magic as it's how they get their food. It was already angered when a message came from a village along one of the great rivers and it seems we angered it to the point of casting her illusion on us." She looks thoughtful. "But I find it a bit strange. Azuls aren't known to attack people and have been deemed friendly enough to swim with. It's a bit odd but I'm planning on sending a couple of warriors to see if they can find out about anything

"It seems you have a tedious task in front of you," Minho says.

"It seems that we do but I'm sure that we're going to be able to solve it just fine," says Jihyo with a smile. "Now the real reason why I wanted to talk to you. We at Temple Mikleo and Temple Zelo would like to invite you for a traditional water temple dinner. I know that it doesn't seem like much, but we would be extremely honored if you could please attend. It would also be a good opportunity for me to charge that gem of yours."

Jeongin laughs. "How funny. We were actually about to look for you and ask about that."

"Then I'm really glad that I came then."

"We would be honored to have dinner with you and your temple," says Felix.

Lady Jihyo's smile is wide and bright. "Wonderful. Then in a couple of hours, please be here in the lobby where Sunmi and Eric will escort you to the bottom of the lake. These are our two strongest water mages and they'll be able to show you properly how the lake is supposed to be."

"And you?" asks Jeongin.

Lady Jihyo keeps her smile. "I'll be setting up for the ritual for your gem. With Sunmi and Eric showing you around, we'll have enough time to charge it before dinner."

"It won't take long?" inquires Felix.

"Nope! It's just getting ready to charge the gems that takes a while but everything should be done by the time you're done with the tour of Mikleo." She pauses for a second. "I should go then. There's a lot to do before tonight. I'll inform Chaerin about Sunmi and Eric. Please continue to rest until then."

At this Jihyo leaves with a bow and they watch her leave.

Minho places most of his torso on top of the table and watches as Jeongin gets up to help Chaerin with lunch for those who are hungry. He comes back a few seconds later as he's pushed out of the kitchen causing Minho and Felix to snort. With a pout, Jeongin sits back down.

"She says that they're making something and I can't know what it is," he says. "I can't believe she actually kicked me out of the kitchen though."

"Maybe it's for the best," Minho snorts.

"I've gotten better at cooking, thank you very much."

"Uh huh but I suppose you're right. Our meals aren't going to be overdone anymore when you're on cooking duty."

"You're insufferable," Jeongin says, shaking his head. "I can't believe you."

Felix has to hold his laugh in, not wanting to get glared at by either man. Instead, he taps on the table to get their attention. "If Lady Jihyo is going to be charging the gem tonight, do you think we should leave tomorrow then?"

"It might be best to get a couple days head start to Moonlight. It's going to take us about a month to fully cross Skylight and another couple of weeks before we even think about getting to Choseungdal. Besides, we've been collecting supplies since we've gotten here and I don't think we need anything else."

"Then we leave tomorrow," says Felix.

Minho and Jeongin hum.

"Do you think the underwater city is nice?" asks Jeongin after a couple of minutes of silence.

"I think so?" says Felix. "When I was staying with the children, they told me a little bit about it. And it turns out that we might have seen a little bit of it when we were pulling people out of the water."

"We did?" questions Minho, sitting up. He rolls his eyes like he's trying to remember before shaking his head. "I don't remember."

"I don't either but then again, we really weren't paying attention to our surroundings. We were focused on trying to get everyone out."

"I wonder what it's going to look like," Jeongin questions, putting his elbow on the table and sticking his chin on his open palm.

"Like if houses were built in mountain sides." Felix pauses. "At least, that's what the children had said."

Minho furrows his brows. "Is that possible?"

"Yes," Jeongin and Felix say together. They look at each before releasing a fit giggles.

"The people of old used to live in the mountains," says Jeongin. "At least the people of Skylight did, believe. I've always heard that there's a lot of history in the mountains of Skylight."

"But it's nothing compared to the creation stories that come from northern Firelight," Felix says with a smile.

Minho snorts. "You're just a proud Firelight citizen."

"And is that wrong of me?"

"No."

"I didn't think so."

This time it's Jeongin's turn to snicker at the banter Minho is causing. Felix can't help the dirty look he shoots Jeongin, whose snickers turn into belly laughter. Felix looks away, fighting a smile that's trying to come across his face.

"Are you doing alright, Felix?" Jeongin asks after their laughing fit is done. 

"Yes?"

"Why does that sound more like a question than an answer?"

"I don't know?"

Jeongin looks down at his hands as he wrinkles his brows. He takes a deep breath before locking eyes with Felix's. "I was just wondering because you saw Chan inside of the travelling room. You hadn't talked about it so I was worried that something might have happened."

Felix isn't expecting this question. He lays his hands flat on the table, staring at the wood in between his fingers. "It was a little bit of a shock, I think. I wasn't expecting him to appear like that." Felix smiles softly, patting the small bag at his side. "It's just odd, you know? He's been dead for the past fifteen years and now his soul is sitting inside of a bag tied to my waist." He stops talking for a second. "He looks the same."

Jeongin hums, leaning in to listen a little more. "You mentioned that head prefect from Aviary."

Felix leans back into his chair, rubbing his hands over his face before sighing. "I did." He drops his hands back onto the table. "Changbin and Chan were a couple. They had been since a few months after they met even if they didn't know. My parents and Chan's would always laugh behind their hands when they saw the two of them. When they finally told everyone they were dating, our only reaction was to laugh and say 'finally'. Chan looked so embarrassed while Changbin just looked smug." Felix's voice cracks. "But enough of that. We're bringing collecting Chan's soul and when he comes back, I won't let him go like I did the last time."

"Let him go?"

"Yes," Felix look straight ahead, keeping his eyes focused on one point before looking at Jeongin whose shoulders slump.

"You loved him." Jeongin states.

"Of course I did. He was everything to me and there's nothing in the world that I wouldn't do for him"

"Oh." Jeongin releases a long sigh before standing up and smiling at Felix. "I see."

Felix furrows his brows, tilting his head to the side. "Is there something wrong?"

"No. I'm a bit tired. I'm going to go up, yeah? Let me know when the temple disciples come."

Jeongin doesn't wait for an answer before he leaves the room. Felix just blinks before looking at Minho who just shakes his head and make a noise at the back of his throat. He leans onto the table and looks at Felix dead in the eyes.

"That could have gone better," he says.

"Do you understand what just happened?" Felix asks, raising a brow at the soulkeeper. "Because I don't."

"You loved Chan.'

"I did. He was ev-"

"Everything to you, I heard." The look on Minho's face turns deadly as he narrows his eyes. "Well I'm glad that you're getting your _everything_ back, then. You can forget about the courtship with Jeongin and go back to pinning after your prince, if that's how you're going to be."

"What the fuck?"

"You heard me."

Felix blinks a couple of times before something clicks in the back of his mind. His face contorts into disgust, his eyes rolling. It takes a moment for the disgust to pass before he's laughing and getting a little annoyed. "You think I loved, _loved_ Chan."

"Isn't that what you just said?"

Felix shakes his head. "Let me tell you something. A little secret if you will." Minho raises a brow and leans forward almost falling out of his chair. "When I was fourteen Chan and I kissed because we were curious on what kissing was like and we both liked it. The next two weeks, we would sneak around stealing kisses from each other, until one day Chan shook his head and told me that he couldn't keep kissing me. Do you know why?"

"Why?"

"He said after the first week of our secret kisses, it was like kissing his family and I couldn't agree more. We kept kissing the second week because we couldn't figure out how to tell the other person that we wanted to stop kissing. But during the first week, there was no one more I wanted to kiss than Chan." He looks down to his hands with a small smile on his face. Maybe he should tell Jeongin this story. Maybe he would understand a little bit better. He takes a deep breath as he thinks about his next words. He hasn't admitted this to Chan just yet or really to himself but maybe this was the perfect time to do so. "Do you know who I want to act like fourteen year old Felix with, going around places and stealing kisses with?"

Minho leans back into his chair and stares at Felix with wide eyes. Felix nods and leans back into his chair, with a smile on his face. He drinks in Minho's surprised expression because he knows that he might not surprise the other in a while.

"Does he know this?" Minho questions.

"I've told him that I see Chan as my brother and I would never come in between in his and Changbin's relationship. Changbin might hate my guts currently, but I would never. Now I'm starting to think that maybe I should tell him this story. That silly man."

"That might help."

Tapping on the table, Felix stands to go and talk to Jeongin. He's about to leave the room when Chaerin comes in with a boy who looks like a child. His hair is cropped short, hanging just above his shoulders and is pulled out of his face, his fringe to one side of his face. Felix stares for a second, noting the headchain against his hair before quickly looking away. He wears the water temple uniform of an blue long sleeve wrap around top. The ends are tucked into waist high black pants that hugs his legs, and a pair of loafers. His eyes are a chocolate brown and his smile seems boyish when he catches Felix looking at him.

"Where did Jeongin go?" Chaerin asks.

"Upstairs," Felix responds. "I was about to go and talk to him but I can bring him down."

"Please do. I'll introduce you three to this young man when you've come back down."

Felix nods and leaves the room, bumping into a girl, in a temple disciple uniform. She gives him an apologetic smile before heading into the dining room where her companion is. He watches her for a moment before going up stairs to his and Jeongin's room. He finds the other man polishing the sides of his war hammer with furrowed brows and a frown on his face. He must have not heard the door open to which Felix takes this moment to watch Jeongin carefully. The man's shoulders are hunched and he's gripping the handle to his war hammer a bit tight. He's upset.

Felix frowns at this.

Telling the story that he just told Minho seems more and more like a good idea. Maybe after dinner he'll tell him. Felix's brain fries a little bit. How does one begin a story about kissing the crown prince when he was a teenager but they stopped kissing two weeks later and now the person that he wants to kiss is courting him and okay.

Jeongin clears his throat startling Felix out of his head.

"I... uh... the temple disciples are here," he says stammering and his cheeks heating up.

Jeongin surprises Felix when _his_ cheeks flush. He blinks a couple of times before clearing his throat. "Right. Shall we go then?"

Felix and Jeongin go back to the dining room where Minho is standing by himself watching the two temple disciples. He turns to Jeongin before looking at Felix with a raised brow. Felix shakes his head.

Chaerin stands in front of Minho with her hands on her hips with the two disciples on either side of her. Now that Felix sees them side by side, he notes the differences in the uniform they're wearing. While the obvious difference is the skirt on the woman and the pants on the boy, there are other difference as well. The woman's wrap around has two columns of three button. Her collar is only black while the boy's is black and white.

The innkeeper claps her hands. "Well now that the three of you are here, this is Eric and Sunmi of the water god temple. Jihyo told me to leave them with you and you'll go from here. If there's anything you need, please let me know. Now if you excuse me, I have a finish something."

With a smile, Chaerin leaves the room. Eric and Sunmi bow.

"Hello. I am Sunmi, one of the female prefects. It's a pleasure to meet you three. Lady Jihyo has told us a lot about the three of you."

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Lee Felix and these are my companions Yang Jeongin and Lee Minho."

"And I'm Eric, one of the male prefects." He looks to Felix. "I haven't seen that uniform in a while. I thought Firelight knights were not allowed to wear their colors."

Felix's eyes harden a little bit while, Jeongin and Minho stand in front of him like they're protecting him. He takes a deep breath before softening his eyes as he smiles to Eric. "This is a little rare to see a Firelight citizen outside of the community I watch over. Most of the opt not to wear their headchains."

Eric smiles sadly. "I know. I did it for a while, hiding my chain because I didn't want any stigma against me. It was a little later that I decided that it didn't matter what people I didn't know thought about my headchain. I was born and raised in Azula and I've always loved my kingdom." He swallows like he's trying to not offend someone. "I just haven't seen those colors out in the open in a long time as most of the time it's inside the temple or they're prisoners of war being transported."

Felix grits his teeth.

Eric glances at Sunmi who nods and takes over the conversation. "Lady Jihyo tells us your on a quest from the gods. If your seeking to recharge elemental stones then I can only imagine what it's for." She glances to the bag tied at Felix's waist. "I wish you luck in your journey."

"Thank you," says Felix, his eyes taking a look at Eric who openly stares at the bag.

Eric meets Felix's eyes and clears his throat. "Shall we get going then? There's a lot to see of the underwater city and I'm sure you'll want to get through at least most of it."

Sunmi leads them out of the inn and back into the forest where they were almost a week ago and it looks different. Before it was like people hadn't used the path in a long while and it was devoid of any animals. Now it's lively with chirps of animals in the late afternoon. Everything is different and as it should be.

"This wasn't here before," Felix says pointing to the row of lights along the road.

"Yes!" Eric squeaks out. "When we do a heavy purification ritual, we take down the lights. It's how the villagers know that our doors are closed to them."

"It's beautiful," Jeongin says.

"Thank you. The Calming Road is almost everyone's favorite above ground. The sounds of the animals chirping in the background and the soft breezes against the skin always brings a sense of peace to someone's mind that is troubled."

"Some people don't go to the temple," Sunmi says. "And instead walk down the Calming Road to pray to Lord Junhong or another god." She points into the forest. "They will trek the woods and look for the shrine that's dedicated to all of the gods and they'll pray there."

When they reach the lake, Felix sucks in a breath. If the lake was beautiful a couple of weeks ago, now that the disciples are alive and well, it looks even more stunning. The trees whose branches hang above the water have hanging lights while little lightening bugs fly over the lake.

Standing at the dock at the end of the Calming Road are a couple of disciples. They stand side by side, talking quietly amongst themselves before the woman notices their group approaching. She bows and the two men follow suit.

"Lady Jihyo asked us to get this boat ready for you," one of the men says, gesturing to the boat.

Sunmi nods and smiles, ushering the group inside. "Thank you," she says. "We'll take it from here.

"Of course," says the disciple.

Eric sits on one of the benches, motioning for the others to do the same while Sunmi stands with the oar in her hand. She steers the boat around the lake a couple of times, the quietness and the peacefulness around the lake do wonders on Felix's mind. He tries to reach out to the lightening bugs only to have them avoid his hands. There's a couple of snickering coming from someone behind him but at this point, he doesn't care. He's just taking in the sight of the lake.

Water splashes into the boat causing Felix to peer over. He blinks a couple of times, a little confused. Was the water supposed to be this close to the inside of the boat?

More water comes into the boat. This isn't right. Before Felix can open his mouth to say something, though, Minho beats him to it.

"The boat i-"

"We'll be fine," Sunmi says with a smile.

Sunmi closes her eyes just as Felix peers into the water. Gone is the dark shape that he saw before and strangely enough, it looks like a bottom of a lake. There's no sign of the temple under the water, just the setting sun's reflection.

"Hold your breath," Sunmi says.

Felix looks around to see more water filling the boat causing it to begin sinking. He glances over to Eric who looks calm and even nods to Felix. He takes a gulp of air and Felix follows.

The boat submerges.

There's a hammering in chest as he squeezes his eyes shut, feeling the water surround him. He can't hear anything other than the pounding of his heart and the sound of something rushing.

Wait.

Something rushing?

Felix opens his eyes and like he expected, he can't see anything but the shape of Eric sitting in front of him. It looks like Eric's hands are out and glowing a bright blue and suddenly Felix can breathe again. He blinks a couple of times, letting the air out of his cheeks. He looks to his clothes to see them dry instead of wet.

Eric chuckles at his confusion. "It's a water spell," he says. "It allows us to breath underwater in air pockets as well as dries out clothes. It's super convenient."

Felix glances at Sunmi whose eyes are glowing blue. She catches Felix's eyes and nods to him before continuing her work. The boat moves with her hands, he realizes when he feels the boat turn to the side.

He looks out into the water to see up close and personal plants that he saw a couple of weeks ago. He looks up to see the sky turning pink and purple only a bit hazy. Fishes swim by him and he's almost sure that if he reaches out, he can touch them.

"What the fuck?" Minho breathes. "This is..."

"Amazing?" Felix says.

The boat does another turn before it heads straight down where there are glowing lights. Felix stares at them as they get closer.

"Eric," Sunmi says.

Eric mumbles something under his breath, a couple of lights flashing from his hands before he turns to face the three new people to under the lake. "Welcome to the temple city of Mikleo, home to the temple of water disciples." He looks to Sunmi. "You can go ahead."

She nods handing the ore to Eric before toppling over the edge of the boat. Felix stares at her, his mouth falling open as she waves at them before swimming ahead. If mermaids were real, Felix would one hundred percent believe that Lee Sunmi, the water temple disciple is one.

Eric steps over Felix, Jeongin, and Minho, taking Sunmi's spot in controlling the boat. The space that he left is now visible to the underwater city. Lights come from everywhere with in air bubbles where people are walking around. Buildings are built into rock as well as hovering air pockets that are tied down with sea grass. From above, they can see markets, what looks like children walking to classes. Actual buildings like the ones on land are only a few but they look massive. Temple disciples who aren't in air bubbles swim freely, waving to the boat as it passes them before swimming off to where ever they were heading too.

"This really is amazing," Felix says.

"I had the same reaction to it as well," Eric says not looking at Felix. He leads the boat down to a dock where he ties the boat to a pole. He steps off and motions for the them to follow. The moment they enter the air bubble, a rush sound hits Felix. It's a normal sound to Felix but one that he's not expecting when he's underwater.

"How is this possible?" Jeongin says jumping up and down as if he didn't believe that he was actually underwater and not just on land.

"The same way water mages helped your before," Eric eyes. "Air bubbles. However, these air bubbles are created by the water spirits that live around here. If we come out of the water spirit's domain, we have to create our own air bubbles which is what Sunmi and I were doing. It takes a lot of concentration even for us so there has to be two of us to switch off when the other grows week. For now, however, I'll be the one showing you three around." Eric points up. "The temple above us is used for the villagers and anyone coming to give their thanks to Lord Junhong. That is Temple Mikleo, named after the lake." Eric walks to the edge where the city keeps going down. "It's also said to be the name of the water dragon that sleeps at the bottom of this lake."

Felix looks at him wide eyed when he's done looking over the edge. "There's a what?"

"It's said that there's a water dragon sleeping at the bottom of the lake. We just don't know how deep the lake is. Only Lord Junhong knows this."

"That's crazy," Jeongin whispers.

"It really is. Come on. Let me show you things while we wait for Sunmi to come back."

Eric is excitable as he shows them the residences, ritual areas, different docking stations for both boats and riding animals. He shows them restaurants, schools, places of businesses, market places they saw above, statues of Lord Junhong and the other gods. It's just a normal thriving city, the major difference is that it's underwater instead of above.

"And here we have some cages," Eric says, pointing a series of bars covering different size caves. "We only use them when we need to subdue an angry creature or keep watch of different ones."

Felix sees a shadow in one of them and a red eye.

"The Azul is in there."

Eric stares out to the cage, his expression turning cloudy. "Yes. We're in the beginning stages of our investigation of what happened. Victoria, Siyeon, and Yukhei have already left to the Starlight Kingdom to see what's going on. They should be arriving their shortly."

"We wish them safe travels, then," says Jeongin.

"Maybe the gods be with them," Minho mumbles.

"We wish them well as well."

Sunmi appears just then waving to the group. She sticks her head into the air bubble and takes a deep breath. "Lady Jihyo is ready."

"Okay, so here's what we're going to do," begins Eric. "We're going to swim to the underwater temple of Zelo instead of walking there. So for my first time swimmers, you cannot talk because I don't want you to drown, thank you very much."

Felix blinks and suddenly he's shoved out of the air bubble. He opens his mouth to yell but Sunmi clamps a hand over his mouth and suddenly he can breathe. He blinks a couple more times before he swims around amazed over the fact that he can breathe. He knows that he's done it before but there's something different about breathing underwater and swimming around when you're not trying to save people.

Eric pushes Jeongin and Minho out into the open, covering their mouths as they also seem to want to open them. Jeongin looks ecstatic as he swims around, really experiencing swimming underwater for the first time while Minho just swims in circles, his face bright and his eyes shining.

Sunmi grabs Felix by the hand and pulls him away. They swim through throngs of people and schools of fishes, by reefs and underwater plants. A couple of disciples join them, pulling Felix away from Sunmi and spinning him around while another one grabs him by the hand and begins to dance with him. There's a wide closed lip smile on Sunmi's face as she swims away for a moment to grab the watching Jeongin. She pulls him into the dancing line before pushing him to Felix.

Felix and Jeongin stare at each other for a long few moments before Jeongin grabs Felix's hand and spins him. He brings him close as they start dancing underwater, not paying attention to their surroundings.

The underwater dancing ends when Sunmi grabs both Jeongin's and Felix's hands dragging them along. She pulls them along until they come to a massive building made out of the same white material as Temple Mikleo. This building, however, is a circular tower. It has a gabled roof shape, windows all around, and beautiful rectangular shaped archways. There's a dock in front of Temple Zelo where Lady Jihyo stand, waving at the five of them.

Sunmi swims them down.

"Welcome to Temple Zelo," Lady Jihyo says once they've all entered the air bubble with a bright smile. "I hope that you've enjoyed your tour."

"This place is beautiful," says Jeongin. "It's extremely magical and..." he trails off as if he can't find the proper words to speak. Lady Jihyo only smiles.

"I'm glad. Mikleo is a beautiful city and I can't think of anywhere else I would rather live, to be honest." She chuckles. "Maybe I'm just a water child at heart."

The High Priestess looks different underwater, much more majestic and ethereal than she did above. Her smiles are brighter and her eyes shine in a strange light. Felix couldn't agree more with the statement she just gave. Park Jihyo looks like she was born to be in the water.

"Shall we get started then?" She asks.

“We’ll get going then,” says Eric. “We’ve got to finish preparing for dinner.”

“We’ll see you in a little bit,” says Sunmi before they jump back out of the air bubble and swim away.

The priestess leads them into the temple where there's only one room and a staircase that leads up. Artwork depicting pictures from the surface, the town of Leam, Temple Mikleo, and the temple city Mikleo are placed on the walls. She climbs a couple of floors before they come into one with a giant chalice in the middle.

"This is the Zelo's Chalice," Jihyo says. "It was given to the first High Priest of Junhong as a gift. Every solstice and equinox, we come and kneel to the Chalice thanking Lord Junhong for his gift and in return, he blesses the Chalice and our city."

She stops in front of Zelo's Chalice, beckoning Felix foreword. The closer he gets, the larger the chalice is until it's the size of cooking cauldron. Inside of the chalice are a two of tiny humanoid shapes sleeping under water. Their torso is no bigger than the size of Felix's pinky finger but adding on their long fish tails, they're the size of Felix's palm. The one on the right has long green hair and a beautiful green tail to match. Attached to the tail are long thin fins both on the tail and on their back making it look like they has wings. There are the same colored scales on their face, outlining their cheekbones and under their eyes. The other little creature has long pink hair in plaits, a shimmery pink tail, also with long thin fins scattered around their tail, however, unlike the green creature, they do not have fins coming out from their back. The scales on against their face run across like freckles as well as down one arm.

"These are water spirits," says Jihyo. "Or really these are what water spirits look like when they're underwater. They're like normal spirits once they come up for air with wings and clothes, only Coups," she points to the pink spirit, "and Xiumin," she points to the green spirit, "like to stay in their water form."

"They're beautiful," Felix says.

"They really are."

Minho walks to the chalice, all eyes on him suddenly, as he touches it and bows his head, closing his eyes. "I thank Lord Junhong for allowing us to visit is temple," he whispers loud enough for the room to hear him. The two water spirits within Zelo's Chalice blink open their eyes and yawn.

"He thanks you," Lady Jihyo says, sticking her fingers into the chalice, "and while he wishes to know why Lord Hansol and Lady Yuju have sent you here, he will not ask you to answer his question. I have not told him anything as well." She gently pokes Coups cheek, the spirit latching onto her finger as if trying to stop her.

"My apologies Lord Junhong," Minho says, stepping away from the chalice. "I have been instructed to keep our mission away from the gods. If you truly wish for answer Lord Hansol has asked me to send anyone towards him."

The High Priestess waves her free hand. "It's no big deal. I'm sure he will find out sooner or later." She looks at Felix. "With that being said, I'm sure we should get started on the ritual. I'm sure that you're hungry as it's almost dinner time."

Minho and Jeongin take a couple of steps away from the chalice, leaving Felix with Jihyo and the water spirits.

She motions to the chalice. "Please put the water gem inside of the chalice." Felix does as instructed. "Lord Xiumin and Lord Coups if you please."

Coups lets go of Jihyo's finger circling the gem as if they're curious to what it is while Xiumin has begun to swim in circles around it. Coups yelps and joins Xiumin in circling the gem. They continue to swim circles but they start to swim faster and faster before they become a blur of green and pink mixing together.

Jihyo begins to softly sing, her voice carrying out into room. Small orbs of different colored lights float into the room, landing on the edge of the chalice. When the light fades, there are small spirits dancing around the rim and holding hands. They join into Lady Jihyo's song, all of voices sounding beautiful and haunting at the same time. The gem begins to glow a light blue suddenly as if taking the voices and the energy given to it by the rapid swimming water spirits.

In no time do the voices grow quieter until the stop completely and with them, do Coups and Xiumin begin to slow down. Once the stop fully, Xiumin reaches out for Coups who complies. They hug each other and float to the bottom of the chalice where once more they return to sleep. The other water spirits begin to giggle as they fly out of the room and into the lake once more.

"You may take the gem out," Lady Jihyo says, her face beginning to pale.

"Magical," is the only thing Jeongin says.

"Lady Jihyo," Felix calls out. "You need to rest."

She smiles. "I'm fine but yes. The charging of the gems is a magical experience. The High Priest or Priestess is needed to do chant or sing in the incantation while the elemental spirits must also be present. Water spirits are an interesting bunch, if I say so myself. They like to hide in difficult for places which makes it harder for me to ask for their help."

"Please rest, High Priestess. Your face just dropped in color."

"I promise th-" She stumbles grabbing onto Felix's arm. "I am so sorry."

"Please don't be. That must have taken a lot out of you so let us rest before we head to one of the dining halls."

"Thank you."

"We should be the ones thanking you."

Felix helps the priestess away from the chalice when a man comes running inside. His steel gaze lands on Jihyo in Felix's arms causing him to sprint to her. He stares her down before shaking his head and sighing.

The man stands tall with his hands on his hips and a raised brow before looking to Felix. Felix has never seen the man before. He would remember steel eyes, dirty blond hair, pale skin, and a rose gold shoulder chain. He wears an outfit similar to Jihyo’s with long wide blue pants that reaches up to his waist. Tucked into the pants is a long sleeved light violet wrap around shirt but unlike the High Priestess, there’s a simple blue cape wrapped around his shoulders.

"I said I would help," he says, gently taking her from Felix's arms. He shoots him a grateful look.

"It's fine," she says.

"I know but Ji-"

"Daniel."

Daniel sighs. "We're talking about this later." Jihyo smiles sheepishly as Daniel turns to the three. "Hello. My name is Kang Daniel and I am the Head Priest of Zelo. To let Jihyo rest, I'll be taking over from here."

"Daniel!" Jihyo shouts.

"Jihyo!" Daniel shouts back. "Right now I'm not talking to the High Priestess of the Water Temples, I'm talking to my life partner. We've just gotten out of suspension and our powers are still haywire. I'm worried, my sweet. Please just rest for tonight."

"Bu-"

"Lady Jihyo," Minho cuts before an argument breaks out, "we thank you for your generosity tonight but if you must rest, then you must rest. We would feel a little ashamed if you did not take proper care of yourself especially after what your temple just went through."

Jihyo bites her lips. "If you insist."

"We do," Felix, Jeongin, and Minho say at the same time.

Bowing to her Jeongin, nods. "Thank you for showing us your beautiful city. Please rest, High Priestess of Mikleo. You've been through a lot recently.

Felix also bows to her. "Thank you for your hospitality, Lady Jihyo and for charging my gem. I sincerely thank you from the bottom of my heart."

Jihyo stares at Felix for a moment. "I hope all goes well for you High Knight Felix. May the gods continue to watch over you."

"Daehwi, Hyukjae, please escort Jihyo to our chambers for the night," Daniel calls out into the stairwell.

Two men come running in. "Yes sir," they both say.

Jihyo leaves with a smile a wave and Daniel grins at the three of them.

"Shall we get going then?" he asks. "I heard they're going to be serving grilled cod. It's one of the best dishes we have here, I do say so myself."

They leave Temple Zelo and head to one of the massive dining areas in one of the cave buildings. Inside are three long tables that seem to go for miles. Food is in the middle of the table while plates line the edges. There's already a lot of temple disciple sitting around but no one has touched the food yet just.

Daniel leads them into the middle of the room.

"Tonight," Daniel's voice booms, "we feast to celebrate our comrade, Kim Namjoon, who has finally be cleared of all his injures. I don't know where you are Namjoon, but you fought bravely against the Azul and I'm glad that you're doing alright. We're giving thanks to these three gentlemen who used wit and their knowledge to face the locked Temple Mikleo and to fight the Azul twice. If not for these three, then we would not be about to eat this delicious food." There's a loud cheer coming from the disciples as well as some clapping. "That is all. Let's eat."

Dinner inside of the dining hall is as boisterous as Felix thought it was going to be. Everything is loud with people talking over people, laughter, drinking, and singing. The food is wonderful, Felix stuffing himself completely full.

By the time dinner is over, Daniel escorts them back to the inn. He peeks his head inside to see Chaerin giving them a tight smile. He waves to her before looking at Felix, Jeongin, and Minho.

"On behalf of Mikleo and Zelo, I once again thank the three of you in your efforts to help us," Daniel says.

"It was an honor to do so," replies Felix. "Thank you for listening to our request to charge gem."

"Thank you for the meal, it was delicious," adds Jeongin.

Minho bows. "Thank you for allowing us in your sacred place as well."

"It was an honor for us." Daniel pauses. "I will leave you here, then. I wish you luck on your journey, High Knight Felix. May the gods be with you."

Daniel leaves with a wave. Jeongin enters the inn and looks at Chaerin.

"Is everything alright?" he asks her. "You look kind of spooked."

"You uhh, have a package," she says.

The hairs on Felix's nape begins to rise. That… that is impossible. Other than a tiny handful people, no one knew where they are at. So who's sending them packages?

"It's addressed to Felix," she says.

Felix looks confused but follows Chaerin to the front desk. The package is long and a bit bulky. There's a slight stench coming from them which they all wrinkle their noses. Sure enough, Felix's name is written on the package. He touches it and it feels hard under his fingers. He's still very confused and not sure if he wants to open it.

"Open it," says Jeongin.

Felix opens the package and covers his mouth with his hands. He stares in horror at the package before shutting it. Chaerin leaves the room, the sound of her dry heaving echoes across the inn.

"What in the actual fuck?" he breathes.

"Felix were those _arms_?" Minho questions.

"Human arms," he clarifies. "What the fuck?"

He looks to the package not daring to open it again. He needs too, however, because he needs to see if he recognizes the arms or if they're just random. He pleads quietly to the gods that they're just random.

With shaking hands, he opens the package again. He stares at the arms and notices that there are two pairs. They look to be female arms, as the fingers are long and dainty, however they could also be male arms. He's seen a couple of men with long and dainty fingers before. There's a thought that passes through his mind but he shuts it down just as quickly as it came.

He closes the package.

 _He's not_ going to entertain this thought.

"Felix," Jeongin questions, "do you know whose they are?"

He's not _going to_ entertain this thought.

"No," he says weakly. "I have no idea."

He's not going to _entertain_ this thought.

"Do you think they-"

He's not going to entertain _this_ thought.

"No. They're not theirs. I don't know whose arms these are."

He's not going to entertain this _thought_.

"Then why send them to you?" asks Minho.

"Maybe it's a warning. Like 'we know what you're doing and if you continue, then we'll kill your people."

Felix hisses at this. "How dare they do this. How _dare_ they. I will make them pay." His mind is pissed beyond belief that until Jeongin places a hand on his shoulder, does he notice that the shadows around them are acting up. He leans into the touch, calming his mind, and reeling in his shadows.

"I'm going to bury them for now," he says. "Until all of this is over will I give these arms a proper funeral but for now."

Without another word, Felix turns on his heel and walks out the door. It's still dark outside and he currently has no light but Jeongin's steps begin to echo behind his. They say nothing as they continue back into the forest where the pathway to the temples are. They diverge a little ways away and pick an easy spot for Felix to find again. They both begin to dig without a word being spoken. Once they're done burying the arms, Felix stands and bows his head.

"Lord Hansol," Felix begins, "I pray that you watch over the souls of these arms. I pray they are no longer in any pain and that it can be eased. I hope in their next life, they will find happiness. To the element gods, as I am not sure whose these people are, I ask that you guide them well in their next life. I ask this of you."

Felix turns on his heel, with his eyes narrowed. The Starlight Kingdom is going to pay for the crimes against the Firelight Kingdom and Felix will make sure of it. Felix is so in his head that he doesn't notice the warm hand in his and the gentle but firm grip of Jeongin's hand almost like it's reassuring Felix that he'll be there every step of the way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi! hi! so i would like to put this here as i think this is the best place to put it. it wouldn't have made any sense to put it in the beginning of the fic so here it goes~ 
> 
> since this is part of a bigbang, here's my artist's artwork. to say that i was in near tears when i was shown it is very true. it's the first time someone has ever drawn something based on something i've written and the emotions got to me. it's very different when you see part of the world you've created come to life. 
> 
> please enjoy my artist's work bc i did and i love it sooooo much. [ please click me~](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Is9V0UioiU5M05EnR2r6e37MMHfKlZlp/view?usp=sharing)


	3. the air temple

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw// blood, severed limbs, more blood, almost death, references to assassination, references to past character death, references to human experimentation

The debates started after four days of riding their horses and just being stupid or maybe they started the moment they left Leam. Minho and Jeongin really didn't have a debate, however, those first four days, it was more of a bet: how long can you stay silent without saying anything that would either drive Felix near insanity or one of us?

After those quiet four days, it was actually Minho who broke the silence. He put his hands up declaring defeat for their experiment. Felix blinked a couple of times before shaking his head and even Jeongin was slightly stunned. He began laughing like a manic though. He had a mini ceremony of enjoying Minho making cook when it was his turn. Minho grumbled about it the entire time, but there was a small smile on his face.

It was also after the fourth night that the sparring sessions began again, Jeongin and Felix loosing miserably to Minho countless of times. However, those sparring sessions began to prove useful after a couple of weeks, when the soulkeeper realized that the matches were getting longer than a minute and couple of seconds. That night, he created a big dinner to celebrate them getting better at fighting him.

A week into their journey to the Moonlit mountains they encountered their second village. The people there were some of the kindest people that Felix had ever met. They welcomed his group with open arms and bright smiles. There were a couple of people that looked at Felix with a wary smile but they were still kind to him, asking questions about their travels and where they were headed too. They didn't tell the people where they were going but only that they were just wandering around, looking at different sights the world had to offer. They left the village with a promise to come back when they were done with their travels.

It was after that village did Felix realize that he still needed to talk to Jeongin. He looked for different opportunities but it seemed like the world was against him. He stressed over it for a few days when he realized as he didn't want Jeongin to think that maybe he didn't want for him to court him anymore. He did.

Which lead Felix to really begin thinking. What is that he could do that would make it seem like he still wanted Jeongin to continue to court him. The only thing that he could really think of was to begin courting Jeongin himself. But how? He couldn't officially court Jeongin because he was a knight. This meant that he needed to get permission from Prince Soonyoung (it was a strange law that the Kingdom of Wishlight had but Prince Soonyoung had explained it when Jeongin began to court him.

"It's there for the safety of the knights," Prince Soonyoung had said. "There have been cases in which people began courting the knights only to betray them or to gain access to the royal family in different means of assassination. But there's this story of one of my ancestors whose best friend was a knight and a woman began to court him. In the end, she used him to get closer to another knight and he was devastated when he found her sleeping with him. The knight fell into a deep stage of depression that he committed suicide in the end." but he didn't think it was going to be a problem.

It also led him to wonder when the fuck he was going to see the prince again to ask. They still have a handful of temples to go and the world seemed to be against talking to Jeongin. So what he could he do?

Along the road, he found a small field of flowers which reminded Felix of the ones that he received during their travel to Leam. Maybe he should return the gesture?

That night when Minho and Jeongin were sparring, Felix went looking for flowers. When he did find them, he spent a while looking for the best ones to give to Jeongin and with a small bouquet of flowers in hand, he had his little present. Minho and Jeongin were still sparring, so he left them behind a tree until night fall where he could leave them on his bed roll.

The spar ended in Minho's victory which lead to Jeongin cooking for the night. There was a light shinning in Minho's eyes as he continue to glance to Felix with a brow raised. Felix pretended not to see anything and flat out ignored any suggestive glances that went his way. Was Felix surprised that Minho knew what he was doing? No. He knew that Minho had his ways of knowing things and he wasn't about to find out what that was.

It was Felix's turn to keep watch of any monsters before he would switch with Minho, leaving Jeongin to have a full nights rest. Jeongin tried to keep Felix company but ended up falling asleep on Felix's shoulder. He felt his heart pound at the touch and kept Jeongin in the position for a few more minutes before moving him to lay down fully. Minho's dumb eyebrows wouldn't stop wiggling when he woke up to switch with him. He left the campsite for a few feet (Felix wasn't that stupid enough to hide the flowers to far from where they were staying) and returned with the flowers in hand. Minho cooed so loud that Felix was scared that Jeongin was going to wake up but he only shifted in his sleep. Felix glared and Minho hid his smile behind his hands but zipped his mouth shut.

Felix woke up the next morning to a single flower in front of his eyes and if he grabbed it and held it to his chest with a stupid smile on his face, that for him to know and him only.

Their travels continued on in the fashion of debates between Jeongin and Minho, the score of the debates had Minho leading by a couple of points, small presents of flowers, shells, and written words were passed by Jeongin and Felix, and sparring sessions between the three.

Three weeks into travelling, that little sense of normalcy changed.

They were near one of the great rivers when they encountered their first monster since leaving Leam. The monster was a riding bear that seemed to have been under the spell of a black mage and terrorizing the river village. The people of the village hired them in hopes that they would kill the creature to put it out of its misery. But to all them, it felt wrong to kill an animal that was under the influence of an outside source. They ended up looking for a way to release the animal from the spell which left with some very minor injuries and four day sleeping Minho as he was the only temple disciple among them.

They left the village about a week later when the village doctor finally found them to be fit to travel. The leader of the village thanked them for their hard work and welcomed them to come back whenever they wanted to.

Because he was still groggy from the overuse of his magic, Minho didn't participate in the daily sparring activities for about a week. This lead to more frequent debates and small experiments to be done. (Felix was sworn to secrecy about the whole singing fiasco featuring a small crying child and an annoyed squirrel who catapulted his food at them.) He would sit on the sidelines and instructed the two courting idiots (as he called them) when they did wrong.

Five weeks into their travels, they sent word to Queen Taeyeon, requesting an audience with her.

Five weeks and two days into their travel, they finally reached the Moonlit Mountains. Since it was the starting of summer, the border between the Moonlight Kingdom and the Skylight Kingdom had no snow capped mountains. Instead they were beautiful grey and white that shone during the day and sparkled at night. No one has ever known the reasons why the Moonlit Mountains sparkled the way that they did during the night nor did they fully understand why every new moon did the mountains seem to glow the brightest.

But truthfully, the Kingdom of Moonlight was a very interesting place, a strange place.

During the day, it looked like everywhere else, with trees, rivers, streams, and animals but at night, it was like walking through a different world.

A week after staring and watching the landscape begin to glow at night, Felix reached the top of the mountain they had been climbing on. There was a village that had no people during the day and a nightlife that placed everywhere else to shame. The village was called Nightview for the sole reason of the night view. The innkeeper had asked them to come back out when the village was awake, claiming that the Kingdom of Moonlight looked so much better during the night. 

So they did.

Felix stood against a railing the village had put in. His eyes were wide and if someone looked at him, then they would have seen bright shining eyes as he looked at the Kingdom of Moonlight in wonder.

Bathed in the moon light, the land below was a sea of greens, pinks, blues, and purples. Outlines of various plants and trees sparkled in the different colors and the more he saw, the more he wanted to touch.

One of the children of Nightview grabbed Felix's hand and pulled him a little ways down the mountain where he could see the lights up close. Minho and Jeongin followed. He reached out to touch the leaves of the trees only to feel the normal edges of the plant. A bug landed a couple of leaves away, the colors of the insect was a bright purple and just beautiful.

"Wait until you see the beaches!" said the little girl as she pulled Felix to a river. "The sand, it glows when you walk on it."

The river glowed a bright blue as the fish swam in colors of orange and pink while the tips of the cattails were red and yellow. The birds in the trees and plumage of yellows, reds, and blues and the eyes of the nocturnal species varied in pinks and yellows.

"This is amazing," Jeongin whispered taking in everything. "Just amazing."

"It's like nothing I've ever seen before," Minho says in awe.

The little girl chuckled. "It really is."

They didn't sleep a wink that night and instead explored the areas near Nightview. Felix touched almost everything and ate the fruits the little girl passed to him and the others, their fingers glowing blue afterwards. When they went to bed come the morning, Felix dreamt of glowing world as beautiful and majestic as the Kingdom of Moonlight.

For a couple of days, they swapped their sleeping schedule to get a good look at everything. As they came down the mountain, they found towns that were active during the day and towns that came to life at night. They all learned in the first days within Moonlight that you never knew what you were going to find.

Travelling at night was a different experience for them. Their daily sparring was illuminated by the plants instead of the sun and firelight. And even when they flipped the schedule back to normal, no fire was lit in fear of not being able to see the light. The nights were a little bit cool but it was doable enough for them.

They crossed many rivers, some glowing and others not, through towns, small mountains, and hills. They helped those who needed helped and played with children who came up to them. Stories were passed, some held true while others were false but just as enthralling as the others.

It was eight weeks of travelling when they finished climbing their last small hill and saw a small glimpse of the ocean. The smell of salt had been lingering in the air for a few days now, so they knew they were close, but to finally see it, meant that their travelling time was just about over. They would be in the capital of Moonlight soon enough.

It was a couple more days until they came to the white sands of the coastline, people running around under the sun. The voice of the little girl from Nightview came Felix's mind. He would have to see the sand when night fell.

There was a gasp coming from somewhere on his left causing him to turn. Jeongin stared out into the distance and Felix followed his gaze. He could see tall winding towers, taller than anything he's ever seen before. He could see the shapes of different building but from where he was standing that's all he could really see. It wasn't until Minho pulled them back to a hill where they could truly see the coastal city of Guinevere.

The city was encompassed by a massive wall that seemed to have different holes in the wall to allow for ships. The tops of the buildings looked like the spiraling towers, only they were not as elaborate in design. Gulls flew around the city making it seem like it was something out of stories they heard on the road instead of stories that were real.

They had finally made it.

They spent three days still travelling to the capital city when they walked into the town outside of the wall, Sone. The people there were a little on edge, people would stare at Felix before looking at his headchains. They would whisper among themselves before rushing away.

Something had happened and that become apparent when they were denied a room in an inn for the third time. They finally found a room when Felix took off his headchain rumbling and glaring at the innkeeper.

"Did something happen?" Minho asked.

The innkeeper looked incredulous. "You don't know?"

Felix rolled his eyes at the innkeeper, his mood still sour about taking off his headchain. "He wouldn't be asking if he knew what happened."

"Felix," Jeongin warned.

"Sorry," he mumbled under this breath.

The innkeeper ignored Felix's words. "There was an assassination attempt on the queen and they're saying that it was someone from Firelight." She shakes her head. "It's slightly shocking to hear about the people of Firelight. I thought they all died after the war but I guess not. If there are still Firelight people alive, I hope they all either burn for their crimes or they leave Moonlight out of their business but enough of that, here are your keys and I hope you enjoy your stay here."

Felix stared at the woman disgust running amok on his features. He glared at the woman with so much distaste that she took a step back. His mind was whirling at the information that was given to him and he couldn't help himself at his next words.

"To wish someone to die is disgusting," he spat. "Who the _fuck_ died and made you one of the gods? None of the gods that I know would even _think_ about you being one of them. You're disgusting."

He grabbed the keys to one of the rooms and turned on his heel, not waiting for anyone. He didn't wait to see any reactions from anyone, not even Jeongin or Minho.

They left early the next day, Felix slamming the keys on the counter and leaving. He waited by the horses for Minho and Jeongin who looked at each but said nothing to Felix. It wasn't until Jeongin placed a hand on his shoulder and placed a grey ribbon around his forehead did he calm down. Jeongin smiled before grabbing his horse and pulling it towards the gates of Guinevere. Minho wiggled his dumb eyebrows for what seemed to be the millionth time.

Gods, Felix needed a new friend.

Felix mounts his horse following Minho and Jeongin to the gate fixing his headband. It feels a lot lighter than his headchain a bit odd. He's not used to not having his headchain on and it's becoming harder not to touch his forehead. He has to physically restrain himself from doing so. He's thought about asking Jeongin to hold his hand but then his cheeks heat and up and well...

He's super thankful for Jeongin, though. He wouldn't have thought of using a hair ribbon as a fake headchain for a little while. He can easily come up with the excuse that he has a head injury and having this ribbon around his head is holding some of the gauzes in place.

There's a little bit of a line to get into the city, the guards looking at each person and talking to them before letting them through. It's to be expected though.

An assassination on Queen Taeyeon?

Who would be dumb enough to try that?

The royal family of Moonlight is one of the heavily guarded family in all of the Light Kingdoms for multiple reasons, one of them being the amount of knowledge that gets passed through each blooded member of the family. He's heard about the books and the lessons that the royals have to go through because of Han Jisung spilling some secrets because even the noble families have to go through the same.

Their turn comes faster than Felix would have thought. He pats the side of his horse for doing such an amazing job in getting him here that he jolts when someone else pats his horse. There's a guard standing next to him, the look in his eyes dull like he would much rather be anywhere else aside from checking people into the city.

"Welcome to the capital of the Moonlight Kingdom, Guinevere," he says, his tone bored. "Please pardon us while we ask you a couple of questions as the city is currently under a lockdown."

Minho crosses his arms over his chest and nods. "That's fine. Fire away."

"Where you are coming from?" he asks.

"Leam in the Skylight Kingdom," replies Jeongin.

"And the three of you are together?"

"Yes," says Minho.

The guard looks at Felix. "May you please dismount your steed? What business do you have in Guinevere?"

Dismounting his horse Felix answers. "We've come to speak to the queen. We have a request."

"Something you couldn't ask the kings of Skylight?"

"That's personal, sir."

The Moonlight guard gives Felix a dirty look. He looks Felix up and down. "Please answer the question."

Felix raises a brow at this. "And again, that is personal. I've answered your question of why we are here, so why do you need to know what the question is about?"

The Moonlight soldier opens his mouth to say something when a couple of soldiers walks by. Felix recognizes the woman from Taeyeon's party during the meeting. She blinks at Felix before looking at Minho and Jeongin and nodding her head. She makes her way over with her companion following her. This time instead of dressing in her formal wear, she wearing black shorts, running sandals, and a gold sleeveless asymmetrical top with a breast guard. Her brown hair reaches the top of her armchain, the silver glinting in the sunlight.

Felix does a double take when he sees who's walking behind the woman. The man stands taller than the woman, his long orange hair is in a messy half up and half down bun and his fringe is to one side. His eyes are a light green, his cheeks a little bit fluffy, and his smile when he sees Felix is large and gummy. He wears the solider uniform of Moonlight, black pants, running sandals, a gold sleeveless asymmetrical top that reaches the back of his thighs, and a Moonlight armchain. It's a been a few years since he has last seen the male soldier, the last time being a couple of weeks before the war on Firelight had begun.

"Is there a problem here, solider?" says the woman, her brown eyes shining like she's ready to get someone in trouble.

The solider salutes her before nodding. "Yes ma'am. They are not complying with my requests."

"I'm sure Lee Felix has told you everything you need."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Lee Felix, Lee Minho, and Yang Jeongin are friends of the crown," says the man. "I hope they are being treated as such."

The solider begins to panic "Of, of course sir."

"I'm glad," says the woman patting the solider on the shoulder. "I will lead them in. Thank you for your time."

The soldier’s face pales the longer that the officers are there. He looks in between the five of them before nodding and moving onto the next people who he has to check. Felix shakes his head and looks to his old friend who still has a shit eating grin on his face.

"My apologizes for him," she says.

Minho bows to her. "It's not a worry Lady Jimin."

Jimin rolls her eyes, putting her hands on her hips. "I'm not a 'lady' sir Minho. We've been over this." She looks over to Felix bowing towards him. "While we've seen each other before, I'm positive we've never been introduced to each. My name is Park Jimin and I am the Knight General to Queen Taeyeon. It's an honor to meet you High Knight Felix of the Firelight Kingdom." She motions to Jisung. "This is High Knight Han Jisung. He will be accompanying us to Queen Taeyeon."

Jisung continues to smile. "It's nice to see you again, Lee Felix."

Felix snickers. "That's a bit odd coming from you, Han Jisung. You've never really been one for full names.

"That was a long time ago."

"Uh huh. I'm sure that you haven't changed and you still have your cheeks!"

"Shut up," Jisung says with red cheeks. He looks to Jeongin and Minho, introducing himself to them. Jeongin's eyes begin to shine with excitement.

"You're Felix's friend who likes ruin and met some of the archaeologists of Inspirit," Jeongin says.

Jisung glances at Felix. "You've been talking about me, ehh?"

"Only the bad things," Felix teases and Jisung pouts.

"I hate you."

"You love me."

Jimin clears her throat before she begins to laugh. She looks in between Jisung and Felix, before tapping the side of her head. "You two know each other then."

"Yes!" Jisung says. "Remember how I told you about the time I went over to Firelight to study? Well one of my first friends there was Felix and Prince Chan. They were super kind and we became really good friends. Even after I went home, Prince Chan and Jisung would take a boat over to my home island and visit for a little while before they had to go back to Firelight."

Jimin nods in understanding. "I remember you telling me." She gestures to Guinevere. "Shall we head into the city and let you two catch up then? Queen Taeyeon is awaiting their arrival, after all."

Jimin and Jisung lead them into the city. Felix looks around at the stalls they pass, colorful fabric being sold in different places, trinkets that have men and woman surrounding them. But it's different from the stalls in different cities. The air walking around Guinevere is tense, like someone is about to attack without consent. People glance at Felix's headband before talking quietly among themselves, looking his way when they don't he looking. Jeongin notices the looks people are giving him and opts to glare back at them. The people glance away quickly like they've done nothing wrong.

"It's really tense in here," Minho comments, glancing a little girl who looks ready to attack Felix. "Is it because of what happened?"

Jimin blinks a couple of times, like she wasn't expecting Minho to know. Very slowly she begins to nod, smiling kindly at the people who look her way. "The people are angry and looking out for their royal family."

"The Kims are very much loved in this city, more than any other royal family that we've had," Jisung says glancing to the side before looking straight. He begins to open and close his hands into a fist like he's trying to control his temper from lashing out, something Jisung has always done.

Felix narrows his eyes when he notices that the closer they get to the palace, the more ridged Jisung's body becomes.

"When did it happen?" asks Felix.

"It was during a ceremony and almost the entire city was present," answers Jimin. "The culprits have not been caught."

"Hence the questions at the gate and look of distrust from the capital," points out Jeongin. "Even last night when we were trying to check into different inns, they all kept turning us away."

Jimin sighs and shakes her head. "I've heard of the townsfolk being harsh to anyone who isn't from around here. Queen Taeyeon and Princess Minji are trying to calm them down the best that they can. The queensguard and the princessguard are working to find out what happened."

They turn a couple more corners, the city's are growing frostier with each moment that passes. Instead of the glances Felix was getting near the gate, more people are openly staring at Felix or really his the ribbon wrapped around his forehead. Their stiff posture and narrowed eyes are questioning if Felix is the one from the rumors. Others glance at Felix's forehead ribbon and smile at him, almost like they don't believe the man with the grey forehead ribbon and wearing Firelight colors was the one who attacked the queen and the princess.

"Normally we would cancel all of Queen Taeyeon's appointments," says Jisung, "with her people and we have, but yours is important. Her Majesty already has an inkling of what you want."

"Do you think she'll allow it?" questions Felix, side eyeing a woman who looks ready to throw whatever is in her hands.

"I cannot speak for her," says Jimin, her tone a little flat, like she's trying to hide something.

Her tone of voice causes him to really look at her. Like Jisung, her back is straight and her eyes are darting around, like she's looking for something. Her hands are opening and closing with tells Felix that she's nervous. There's something that she not telling him.

Felix glances at Jeongin and Minho, both of who are glancing around as if waiting for someone to attack them. Jeongin's hand reaches for the handle of his war hammer and Minho sticks one of his hands inside of his shirt, probably gripping onto one of his chakrams. Felix keeps his eyes straight.

"Is there a place that we can put our horses?" he asks. "I have the feeling that we're going to be here for a little while."

Jimin jolts a little bit at Felix's words but nods. "Once we get to the palace, I'll have someone take them. Don't worry, they won't be harmed here."

"Oh good. I'm quite fond of my horse."

Silence falls over them as the palace comes into view. From up close the towers are beautiful as they wind up into the air. Spires and other towers surround the tallest tower making the building seem a lot longer than it really is.

They cross through the palace gate where everything is circular which makes some sense to him. The Kingdom of Moonlight is all about equality and treating people the same no matter who they were. And the circle represents that, which made Felix happy. Most of the Light Kingdoms had learned that mindset hundreds of years but he never did understand why the ancients decided to treat women differently. It was dumb and made no sense to him.

History lessons aside, Jimin and Jisung walk Felix, Jeongin, and Minho into the palace where servants and soldiers glance in their direction. Like the people on the streets, Felix's ribbon wasn't met with good stares. The soldiers openly glare at him, one of men rushes towards Felix, horrible words falling out of his lips. Jeongin and Jisung stop the man, Jeongin's war hammer mere inches from tearing out the man's throat.

"I'm so sorry," Jimin says, shaking her head. "I will make sure that he's reprimanded for his actions."

Felix keeps his eyes narrowed but doesn't say anything. There's really nothing for him to say.

Jimin stands in front of beautiful elaborated doors, the design on the doors forming pictures of a moon and water around it. The plants of Moonlight are also outlined on the door, making Felix vaguely wonder if like the actual kingdom itself, do the decorations on the door actually glow?

"Please, wait here," Jimin says. "I will inform Queen Taeyeon of your arrival."

With a bow and not another word, Jimin walks through the door, leaving Felix, Jeongin, and Minho with Jisung.

Jisung smiles brightly at all them, but the smile doesn't reach his eyes. Opposed to before, the light in Jisung's eyes look different. Gone is the playful and slightly carefree Jisung, now stands the determined Jisung, someone who looks like they're about to fight for something.

"Is everything alright?" Felix asks. "You seem to be on edge."

Minho and Jeongin stare at Jisung who continues to smile and shake his head. Felix notices he has begun to play with his fingers. "Nothing is wrong. I promise."

Felix raises a brow. "You can't lie to me Han Jisung. I've known you for a long time and I can tell that you're lying."

Jisung stares at Felix, those eyes of his seem to stare into Felix's soul. There's a hint of desperation in his eyes, like he wants Felix to figure it out, but it's gone just as fast as it comes.

"It's been a long time, Felix," he says, shifting the weight in between his legs, "years in fact and people can change. Maybe the Jisung back then when we were kids would be lying right now, but this current Jisung isn't. Everything is okay, Felix." He looks at Felix for a brief second before glancing away and looking at Jeongin.

Felix doesn't say anything to that, he can only stare at his old friend. He wasn't wrong. It's been years since they last saw each other, since they last spoke to each other and of course they've changed. Of course people change, but something that doesn't change is someone's body language. Unless you've trained yourself to change your body language, it will always remain the same.

The Jisung then, when lying, would always play with this fingers and shift his body weight. He would look around trying to not look in a person's face.

"Then stop playing with your fingers and shifting your weight around. Look me in the eyes Han Jisung and tell me that nothing is wrong. Something is about to happen when we walk into that room and I need to know what we're about to walk into."

Jisung's mouth drops open and an embarrassed flush rises to his cheeks. He swallows and open his mouth to speak when the doors of the room open again. Jimin smiles at them, her smile also not reaching her eyes.

"Queen Taeyeon will see you now," she says. “But before that, please hand your weapons to Jisung. It’s prohibited to visit the queen and have your weapons on you.”

Felix glances at Jisung who bites his lips and looks away, motioning for their weapons. For a long moment, the only thing that Felix can do is stare at the side of Jisung's face, disbelief running its course. It takes him a moment before he’s letting go of his sword and handing it to Jisung, Jeongin and Minho following his movements.

His gaze doesn’t leave Jisung’s face. Fifteen years in a long time and maybe Jisung really did change. With narrowed eyes thrown at the Moonlight knight, Felix walks into the room with Minho and Jeongin, holding their heads high and waiting for an unknown attack.

Right before he can pass Jimin, however, his arm is pulled. He doesn't look at her.

"Be wary, Firelight knight," she says. "Not everything is what it seems." She let's go of Felix's arm.

Felix doesn't say anything to her, pulling his arm away. He steps into the throne room to see golds and black almost everywhere. The walls are high and lead into the massive tower. Archways are embedded into the walls, hovering over small nooks with the busts of previous queens. A long black rug runs to the throne, pictures of a ocean and shells are embroidered with gold threads. The rugs reaches a beautiful throne made of obsidian and gold. Behind the throne a tapestry of a solid gold moon hangs. Underneath the gold moon sits Queen Taeyeon, her eyes cold and harsh as he stares down Felix. Around her are what Felix believes are the nobles of the kingdom, all of them openly glaring at Felix.

And in the middle of the room stands a man who he never thought he would see again.

The man's hair is long and a very rare silver. He wears a simple side buttoned grey top and black pants, clothes that Felix would never thought he would see the man in. He glances at Felix, his dark eyes wide like he couldn't believe who is standing in front of him.

Before he can even open his mouth to ask what's going on, a hand is on his shoulder and it squeezes. The hand pushes him to walk foreword and before he knows it, he's standing next to the other man who looks surprised that he's there.

"We have brought the rest of the assassins," Jimin's voice rings out from behind Felix.

"I beg your pardon?" Felix says turning around.

He doesn't make it far before he's forced to look at the queen. She keeps her eyes narrowed as she stands from her throne. Her dress matches the rest of the room in black and gold. She pats down the embroidered piece down the center of her dress, the ruffles on her sleeves moving along with her movement.

"Pretending you do not know what you did?" she questions.

"I beg your pardon?" Felix asks again. "We didn't try to kill you."

"Idiots, the lot of them." She glances to side. "I knew we shouldn't have kept Firelight citizens within my borders. I've treated them with respect and this is the thanks I get?"

"Your majesty, I'm telling you, it was none of us," speaks the Firelight man standing next to him. "We've been in the countryside away from prying eyes as we promised.

"Silence, Yoon Jeonghan. I don't want to hear your lies." She looks to Felix. "And to think someone of your status would have helped. I'm just curious on how you got out of the capital in the first place after the assassination attempt but even more curious on why you thought it was a good idea to come back."

Felix's blood begins to boil, everything finally making sense. He feels stupid because he should have known that Jisung and Jimin were going to set up something like this after all. The assassin hasn't been found yet and here comes the perfect scapegoats for an assassination.

"Assassination?" Felix asks instead of speaking his mind.

"What in gods name are you talking about?" Jeongin questions from behind Felix. "We've been travelling for the past two months and you think that we've put an _assassination_ attempt on you?"

Queen Taeyeon doesn't say anything to Jeongin's words, only turning to Minho and him, disgust written on her features. "Does Prince Soonyoung and King Jiyoung know about this?"

Jeongin opens his mouth to retort but before he can, someone from the crowd of nobles steps into place. His smile is sinister and the light in his eyes is ready to blame everything on Felix. He bows to the queen, his gold and silver robe fluttering like wind is blowing in the palace. He throws his braid over his shoulder, as if hiding it away from the rest of the room.

Felix knows that he's seen this man before, but he can't put his finger on it. Based on the color of his clothes, however, the man comes from the Kingdom of Starlight.

_Not everything is what is seems._

Something else clicks at the back of Felix's mind.

The people who sent the assassins to Moonlight was the Kingdom of Starlight. They're wanting to make a mockery of the fallen Firelight. It's the only thing that seems to make sense. If it didn't then why did Jimin give her warning to Felix?

"I'm sure Wishlight knew all about the attempt on your life," says the man, his fingers tightening around the staff in his hand. "They have been harboring Firelight citizens for years after the war but maybe it was this monster here." He points to Felix. "Beside, do you even know who you have? This Firelight man is High Knight Lee Felix. He is the Devil's Firelight right hand man." He points his staff to Felix. "I heard once that Prince Chan's knight knew how to use magic. Of course, not as much as the mage knight that you have here, but a decent amount." His voice grows lower. "And the commoners of Firelight know shadow magic. There's no doubt in my mind that he's probably is controlling the royal family to do his bidding."

"That's bullshit," Jeongin hisses.

The Starlight noble only shakes his head, his features looking sad. "He probably has these two under his spell as well. Please Queen Taeyeon, they will need to be punished for their crimes."

Felix's blood boils like never before. While yes, he's pretty much figured out what's going on, but that doesn't mean he has to be happy about it. He's being _used_ to save this man from death. He's being _used_ by both Starlight and Moonlight for their own things and he hates it. He curls his lips and decides to play along with this ridiculous game.

"How can you be sure about that?" Felix's asks, his tone bored.

Jeongin's and Minho's heads snap towards him, their eyes questioning and wide.

"The fact that you have the power of the shadows for once," says the man. "Besides, I've seen you fight before, Lee Felix. I've fought you before but it seems that you don't recognize me but then again, it's been many years since we last saw each other."

"Then it seems you weren't worth remembering."

The man snickers before full out belly laughing. "Maybe not but I remember you and I remember the disgusting things that you've done. There's no doubt in my mind that you're controlling both of Prince Soonyoung's closest knights to do your bidding."

Felix scoffs. "You act like you know how to control shadows."

"Of course I don't. I was born in Starlight and I have nothing to do with your disgusting country."

"Of course not. Someone who knew about controlling someone using shadows has to be standing in the shadows of the said person they're controlling." Felix snickers. "And I'm not standing in anyone's shadow."

The man snorts. "It's very easy for you to send a shadow clone or even your shadow in place of that, is that not?"

Felix nearly snarls at the man. The only way that someone would know that is if there was some of knight, noble, or magician told him. They made sure that it the information about the shadow clones and the other shadow weren't public knowledge. They didn't want anyone to live in fear that they could be controlled from afar.

...

Oh.

"Then how do you know that I can use my shadows that way to manipulate people?"

"We've done testing," says the man.

Bingo.

"Testing?" Queen Taeyeon questions. "What kind of testing?" 

"Forced testing, really. We had to test the citizens of Firelight to make sure they wouldn't turn on us."

"Forced testing?" Minho says. "Does this mean that you've been experimenting? That's the only way you can force test anything."

"I see." She looks to Felix, ignoring Minho's question. "Then Lee Felix, why would you control people who trusted you?"

"To kill you?" Felix asks the unasked question. "Why wouldn't I want the person who killed my king and queen, dead?"

Felix feels a little funny saying this. Like he can't believe that he is. He and the others understood why Taeyeon did it, even if she was wrong. But maybe the residual anger is what's forcing him to say the things he's kept in his heart out loud. There's pain in Taeyeon's eyes, the first kind of emotion the queen has shown him but it's gone before he can think too much of it.

Taeyeon waves her hand. "King Chulyoung was a horrible king. He needed to die."

Felix seethes. "King Chulyoung was a wonderful king. He led his people in prosperity and funded places where he felt should continue to bring peace to the world. He protected his people when it was needed and spent time with those affected by monster hunts." He narrows his eyes. "If King Chulyoung..." he trails off. "No. You don't get to hear but if King Chulyoung was a horrible, wouldn't that make you a horrible queen? After all, it takes someone horrible to know someone horrible."

The room turns into a stunned silence. People stare at Felix with wide eyes, the air beginning to turn stale and heavy.

"There's something that we don't know about King Chulyoung?" Queen Taeyeon asks.

"Is there?" Felix retorts.

"Felix let th-" Jeongin begins to stay before Felix shakes his head.

"Shh," Felix snaps.

"Felix!"

Jisung hits the back of Jeongin's head with the hilt of his sword. "Silence, criminal," he says watching Jeongin crumble.

Minho is silent as he watches everything unfold. Felix glances at him, wondering what he was going to say but the soulkeeper is keeping his gaze straight and his back rigid. There's a look in his eyes, one that tells Felix finally shut his mouth. Taeyeon scoffs as Felix looks away from her.

"I've had enough of this," the queen says, her voice boom across the room. Take them to the cellars. We'll give them their punishments and the rest of their trial tomorrow. Take them to the cellars."

Felix turns on his own, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. He doesn't move, waiting for Jimin to move him. He doesn't dare look at the queen because while he doesn't regret his words, it would be best to continue his "game" with the people of Moonlight. Jimin grabs him by the arm, pulling Jeonghan with them.

He keeps his gaze straight as they walk out of the throne room and keeps it straight until there's a hand against his should after they've turned a couple of corners. He blinks a couple of times before looking at Jeongin who gives him a small smile.

"I didn't mean to snap at you," he says.

"Don't worry about it," replies Jeongin.

Felix feels the anger inside of him force itself into a simmer. He's still angry but he knows that there was no other way. Everything that happened was supposed to play out the way that it did. But that didn't mean he has to like it.

"Thank you," says Jimin.

"I don't know what to say to any of this. You used the fact that we would be coming here to pin the blame on the Firelight Kingdom for the assassination."

"We had no choice," says Jisung. "The Kingdom of Starlight was here and they somehow knew that we had refugees here."

"And we agreed to it," says Jeonghan. "They've done so much for us that it was the least that we could do."

Felix doesn't say anything to that because he might have done the same. He might have asked for the village under him to do the same thing. But right now, he's not sure if it was the right choice to do so. Maybe making the Firelight Kingdom the ones who tried to kill the queen and the princess, the people are going to be wanting their heads for their crimes. Not only that, the temple they need to get to is still in Moonlight, who knows how much danger the queen's stunt is about to put them through.

Felix's sighs through his nose.

Jeonghan chuckles. "I didn't think you would catch on so soon."

Felix over to a smiling Jeonghan. "Well with General Jimin squeezing my neck like she was and the smug look coming from that Starlight noble, it wasn't hard to figure it out."

It doesn't take very long for them to begin heading down. Soldiers and other palace staff are still giving them dirty looks. Felix pays them no mind when he passes them. Like all other times, he keeps his head up, not giving them the time of day.

The cellars are all the same. Dirty, dingy, an unidentifiable stench, and iron bars. Somewhere in the background is the sound of water dripping against stone. Jimin and Jisung stop in front of a large cell. There's a couple of cots shoved in the back and a random bucket on top of one of the cots.

"I'm terribly sorry for this, once again" Jimin says, opening the cellar door. "We don't want to treat such important guests to the queen like this."

Minho is the first to walk in, plopping himself down on a cot. He glances to the cell door, his lips in a thin line.

"Someone later tonight will bring you food, until then, there's water in the bin if you would like to wash off your makeup Lord Jeonghan," says Jisung, motioning to the bucket on the cot.

Jeonghan nods, walking over to it. "I'm not a lord but thank you."

Felix chooses to sit on the floor, looking at a point to the left of Jisung's face. He can see the other man trying to get his attention but Felix doesn't want to give it him. It might a be a little petty but he really needs the anger to leave before he does something that he's going to regret. Not looking at Jisung trying to gain his attention is the only thing that he can think of right now.

He hears Jimin and Jisung leave causing him to sigh. He puts his head against the wall and closes his eyes. He empties his thoughts for a little bit, finding himself in a space that reminds him of home. He pictures the different events that have happened over the years. Most of them pass in short bursts of sad moments before he sees a smile and hears a laugh that makes his body warm.

Felix snaps his eyes open to see Jeongin's face in front of his. He blinks a couple of times before looking away, a faint heat rising to his cheeks. Jeongin smiles.

"Hello there," he says.

"Hi," responds Felix.

"I thought I lost you there for a second."

"I just needed a breather."

"Oh?"

"Yeah." Felix pauses for a second. "You do know that even if I wanted to or even if I could, I wouldn't control you or Minho with the shadows."

"I know," Jeongin says stepping away from Felix's face and sitting next to him.

"The only people who could do that were the Mage Knights," Jeonghan says, his face wet and the bruises gone. "It's a forbidden magic and only when the king or the queen are present were we allowed to use it." He places the bucket of water on the floor and sits on the cot. "It was very dangerous, though. Shadows are dangerous once you reach the level of the High Mages."

"I didn't know it was a forbidden magic. It's just common sense for me." Felix looks down to his hand where Jeongin's is placed a couple of inches apart. He stares at their hands for a couple of seconds before linking their pinkies together.

Jeonghan begins to snicker while Minho only sighs. "It wasn't knowledge given to very many people," says Jeonghan. "Although there are far more dangerous magic out there. I'm sure that when Prince Chan was going to take the crown, you would have learned more about the High Mages and their squads."

"I don't think I want to learn about the High Mages and the magic users. You were no fun." He rolls his eyes, looking up at Jeonghan who puffs his cheeks.

"Excuse me? We had plenty of fun, thank you very much. Prince Yedam made sure of that."

"Prince Yedam only dragged the mages into his nonsense. Don't think I forgot about the horse incident."

"It's not like Prince Chan didn't get his revenge on his brother and you were insufferable. The amount of times Prince Yedam went around cursing you to fall was enough to send High Mage Jaejoong into shock. He almost did."

Felix snorts at this. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Because this is Bang Yedam we're talking about." Jeonghan's smile begins to look sad, his voice growing quieter with each word spoken. "Prince Chan would have been an amazing king and Prince Yedam would have made a fine Mage Prince. Do you think you can really bring him back?"

Unlinking his pinky with Jeongin, Felix stands, walking over to Jeonghan and putting his hand against his shoulder "I'm going to do my best."

Jeonghan smiles softly "I know you will, High Knight. You've always been able to do it."

Silence takes to the cell.

"I didn't know you two knew each other well," Jeongin says after a couple of minutes of silence.

"Maybe not as well as you're thinking," Jeonghan says sighing and laying down the cot. "I was mainly with Prince Yedam while Felix was with Prince Chan."

"You're a mage," states Minho.

"I am. I was in the Mage Corps under High Mage Jaejoong."

"Your rank?"

"First." Jeonghan's voice is quiet when he speaks. "With the shift in power within the royals, I was to become the next High Mage but..." He shakes his head. "Maybe in another life."

"Or maybe this one," says Felix. "Things might still be the same."

"I highly doubt that. Too many things have change, most of them not for the better. Maybe there's someone more powerful than I am."

"Not if you ranked first," Jeongin says. "That's an amazing feat that not many people have been able to accomplish." He turns his head, pulling up his knees and placing it on them, to look at Felix. "Once again, why do you always know the powerful people?"

Felix blinks a couple of times before snickering. "We've already had this conversation."

"But still, this is insane. Next thing you're going to tell me that you personally know the High Priest of a temple."

"I do know a High Priestess of a temple."

The look on Jeongin causes Felix to try not to laugh. It lasts a couple of seconds before he begins laughing. Jeongin blinks a couple of times before pouting.

"Oh for fucks sake. Who?" he asks.

Felix tries to talk in between laughs before he takes a deep breath. "You know her too. In fact we came from her temple."

It takes Jeongin a couple of seconds to understand what Felix is talking about. The different shades of red that goes around Jeongin's face causes him to shake his head and give Jeongin a questioning stare. With embarrassment rolling off him in waves, Jeongin hides his face into his knees. Felix's pats his back.

"It's okay," he snickers.

Jeongin mumbles something that Felix can't understand. Felix snickers.

"I can't understand you."

Jeongin turns his head. "Shut up."

Felix just smiles at Jeongin's words. It hasn't been very long since they've passed banter like this so he doesn't really understand why it feels like it's been forever since the last time.

With a shake of his head, he stares at the floor, wondering if this is a good time to bring up what happened in Leam. The situation of sitting on the floor inside of cell isn't the best place but it might be the only time where they can talk about what happened. Minho is busy talking to Jeonghan about something which gives them a little privacy to do so. He only hopes that Minho doesn't listen in to the conversation.

"Hey Jeongin? About the inn in Leam..." he starts keeping his gaze on the floor. He can't place his finger on why he's nervous.

Jeongin sighs and smiles sheepishly. "I know you've never seen Prince Chan like that. I don't know what came over me, to be honest. I don't know if it had something to do with we found a piece of his soul which means, you're one step closer to having him back or because of how highly you speak of him."

"Do you want to hear a story?"

"About Chan and I?"

Jeongin doesn't say anything. Felix takes this chance to begin his story. This time, however, he keeps his gaze on Jeongin's hands that are squeeze his forearms. Jeongin listens to rapt attention, nodding a couple of times at Felix's words. It's only when he stops talking to let the information process in Jeongin's mind does he look at the other man.

"Why are you telling me this?" Jeongin asks after a second.

Felix hums. "Chan will always be like a brother to me. When we stopped those kisses that was the reason but you know there's someone else that I want to act like younger Felix." He reaches out and brushes hair away from Jeongin's eyes. "There's someone else that I want to hide away and kiss. There's someone else that I want to go throughout the day and steal kisses from."

His body moves without a thought and presses a gentle kiss to Jeongin's forehead.

"Like you like to remind me, you're courting me Jeongin and I agreed to it. You're my boyfriend who isn't my boyfriend but you are."

Jeongin doesn't say anything and Felix begins to scream in his head. Did he really just say something like that? He guesses that he did. It's his turn to cover his face in embarrassment causing Jeongin to snicker. With a shake of his head, he moves to sit against the walk, Jeongin unfolding his body to sit next to Felix.

He closes his eyes not wanting to face Jeongin in his slight embarrassment to which Jeongin once again snickers. His body tilts towards Jeongin and for a brief second, his body stiffens but slowly relaxes. It's a nice feeling, Jeongin's body next to his and slowly before he begins to nod off, he questions himself.

Is this what it feel like to sleep in Jeongin's arms?

The sound of a cell door is loud and stirs Felix from his sleep. Blearily, he opens his eyes, blinking a couple of times to get his sight in working order. He finds that the world has tilted to the left before he remembers that Jeongin had pulled him to the side before he had fallen asleep. With a couple more blinks, he looks up to spot Jeongin smiling down at him smooshed next to Minho's grinning face. Felix doesn't like that look.

"I'm so telling Soonyoung about this," Minho snickers.

"I hate you," is the only thing that Felix says as he gets up from Jeongin's lap.

Minho's laugh is loud, echoing across the stone walls. "You love me. Now get up. Someone's coming and I don't think you want them to see you sitting on the floor like you are."

Felix can only sigh at this, feeling like he's been doing this for a long time. He stands, listening to the sounds of someone's footsteps walking towards them. He holds his breath, waiting for someone to turn the corner. He doesn't know what he's expecting but it's certainly not a man who is dressed similarly to Minho.

The man's hair is a beautiful brown and braided to one side, the top of the braided incorporating strands of his fringe. He smiles bright enough to rival Minho's true smile and those eyes, those eyes that look familiar to him.

With keys jingling in his pocket, he opens the door before rushing to Minho and wrapping his arms over the other's shoulders. He sniffles loudly causing Minho to roll his eyes and push the other man away. With a loud cry, the man nearly hits the bars of the jail.

"I should have known," Minho says.

The man stops crying, a sly smirk forming against thin lips. "Hello little shit."

"You're the little shit."

"I'm older than your dumbass."

"By five months."

"I'm still older."

He turns the people in the cell and smiles. It's almost like he had forgotten that other people were also inside of the cell with Minho. He looks to each person, a wide smile on his face, before landing on Felix. Felix, on the other hand, is confused like the precious bean he is. "Hello! I'm Lee Hwanhee and I am the soulkeeper for the kingdom of Moonlight and Minho's older brother!"

"He's adopted," Minho says, making sure that his words are stressing the 'adopted' part. "Thank fuck he's adopted."

Hwanhee pouts, his expression making him look younger than he seems to be. He crosses his arms over his chest and looks at Minho with a sad gaze. "Ma would very disappointed if she heard you say that."

"Then thank gods she's not here," Minho says with a shake of his head and a big sigh.

"I came all this way to rescue you and bring you to one of my closest friends and this is the thanks I get? Maybe I should leave you in here so you can think about your life choices."

Minho sighs and gives Felix a look that's somewhere in between, "please help me" and "please end me". He can't seem to figure out which one Minho truly wants which leaves him shaking his head and Minho looking disappointed.

Rubbing his hands against his face, Minho takes a deep breath before looking at his brother. "Please take me out of this cell before I decide on actually slamming your head against the wall."

"What for?" Hwanhee asks. "It's not like I can die from that."

"Would you like to test it?" the younger brother snaps.

"Not really," says the older.

"I thought so. Now your friend?"

Hwanhee glances outside of the cell before leaving causing everyone just to stare him. He peeks his head back into the cell with a questioning glance, smiling when people begin to follow him.

He avoids almost all the places that seem to have people within them. Felix can hear the noises of people talking and smell the faint scent of food but Hwanhee doesn't stop. Hwanhee doesn't stop until they're safely out of the palace and into town. They walk through back allies to avoid looks, smiling only to some who look their way.

The longer they walk, the more Hwanhee begins to talk. He tells stories of when Minho and he were younger, laughter falling from his lips. Felix can't help but to glance at the soulkeeper during these stories, a smile making its way across Felix's face as he sees the red seep into Minho's cheeks.

Minho shakes his head and tries to walk a little ways away from the group, only to be brought back by a bright smiling Hwanhee who feels his hair. Minho can only sigh.

Lee Hwanhee doesn't stop until Felix is standing in front of an inn with the words _The Angel's Wing Inn_. He doesn't hesitate leading the group inside of the inn, smiling at the innkeeper who smiles back at him. He glances over the group, nodding his head, and looking away.

Heading up stairs, Felix tries to look around the inn but he see nothing interesting. The walls are made of wood as are the stairs and most of the doors. There's a picture frames here and thee but the pictures inside of them are so faded that the only thing Felix can make out are the colors.

Once they've walked a couple of flights of stairs, Hwanhee stands outside of a room with the number 457. Carefully, Hwanhee raps his knuckles against the door, a faint 'come in' comes from the other side. However, Hwanhee doesn't open it.

"Now, please don't shout when you meet her," he says. "Just behave yourself, please."

"I feel like I should be saying that to you," Minho mumbles under his breath but it was loud enough for Hwanhee to hear. He pouts at Minho.

"I behave."

"You behave like a five year old on a sugar high."

Before Hwanhee can say something, the door opens revealing a girl with red hair and green eyes. She looks at the group before snickering behind the door and pulling in Hwanhee and Minho.

"Any louder and you would have told people who you are," she says marching into the center of the room.

Like all of the inns that Felix has visited, this room consists of a massive bed, a couple of bedside tables, a low table that looks like it for meals, and a door that probably leads to the washroom. But the only thing that's not there in the other rooms is a girl sitting on the bed, her legs crossed over each other. She wears a black cloak, the hood covering her face before she lowers it.

There is one way to describe the woman in front of Felix and that's beautiful. Her long blonde hair falls towards her waist, the waves looking like they've been sculpted just for her. Her eyes are some of the bluest eyes that he's ever seen and her skin a pretty light tan.

He glances at the rest of the room noticing two women in black cloaks much like the woman sitting on the bed. Behind them are three men, all of which are leaning against the wall. Two of the men wear white pants, and a white and gold sleeveless top that looks like it opens in the front. The ends of the top are pointed with little tassels hanging off the three corners. Both men wear silver arm chains, the gems glittering in the faint light of the room.

Felix's gaze lands on the last man in the room and does a double take. This man doesn't look like a man but a boy no more than seventeen years of age. His eyes are completely white, the edges of his cornea outlined in black. His skin is pale and his long reaches above his shoulders. He wears a thin striped under shirt and black pants that reaches his ankles. On top of everything, he wears a knee length teal wrap around that has a thick black sash around his waist. Next him is a massive staff that seems to be made out of metal, three thick rings of silver holding hanging jewel.

Felix has never seen a man like this before nor a uniform like this.

Hwanhee lowers his head at the woman and shifting Felix's attention back to the other soulkeeper. "Gentlemen, I would like you to meet Crown Princess Kim Minji and some of her guards, Sana and Momo. Minnie, these are your mother's guests." He points to each person in the room with perfect care before pointing to the men in the back. "I will get them in a moment. First, Minnie wants to talk to you guys."

"Hello," says Princess Minji, bowing her head.

Felix bows lows at her before standing straight, everyone following his lead.

"First, I wanted to say thank you for going with our plan. I can understand your confusion if you have any but I was told that knights Jimin and Jisung explained the situation to you." They nod. Minji keeps going. "Second, I understand that High Knight Lee Felix of Firelight, High Knight Yang Jeongin of Wishlight, and soulkeeper Lee Minho of Wishlight would like to enter the Temple of Air. Is this information correct?"

"Yes, your majesty," Felix says.

The princess glances to one of her guards, Sana, who nods her head and steps forward. In her hand is a small bag that she passes to Felix before stepping back next to the princess.

"Inside of the bag, you will find an entry letter for High Priest Jiho and a token that will allow you to board the ship along with these men." The two men wearing the same uniform step up. "These two are prefects at the Temple of Air, Choi Minki and Kang Dongho. They will be your guide up the temple and I ask of you to protect them on the road if something were to happen." She takes a deep breath. "Momo."

The second guard walks forward, her dark eyes shining as she walks into the corner of the room. She pulls on a blanket in the corner of the room showing a bow with a golden trimmed quiver, a war hammer that looks taller than anyone in the room, and a longsword that Felix missed since it was taken away from him.

"I'm sure you know what these are," says Minji. "I've had them cleaned and polished for you and they should be good as new."

Felix walks over to his sword, grabbing the hilt and sighing at the weight of the weapon in his hands. It's familiar and it's comfortable to him. He's closes his eyes for a couple of seconds, thanking whatever god is listening for giving his weapon back before opening them to see Minho and Jeongin releasing sighs as they too grab their weapons.

He looks over the two men in white and gold, taking in their appearances as Jeongin agrees to the conditions next to him. He slides his gaze back the princess, who has a small smile on her face. Her blue eyes shift to Jeonghan.

"You are heading to the relocation of the Firelight citizens," she says, her voice crisp and free of any doubts.

"What?" Jeonghan blinks a couple of times like he doesn't understand what she's talking about. "I have to-

Princess Minji shakes her head. "It wouldn't make sense for the three of them to make a break for it and leave you by yourself," she says. "Momo will take you to the Wishlight border."

Felix perks at the country name. "Wishlight?"

Minji looks straight. "A couple of days ago, my mother and King Jiyoung came in agreement over the citizens of Firelight. Those who currently live in Moonlight are to travel to Wishlight where it is safer there. With the royal family currently blaming Firelight for our assassination attempts, we do not wish for your citizens to get caught up in another war for their lives. We only want to protect you people."

"We all agreed to it as well," he looks to Felix furrowing his brows. "It was one of the conditions given to the us by the queen should we be used as their scapegoat. Most of our group travels to Wishlight anyways. We have a lot of spouses in our community, it's only fair for them to be together again."

Felix takes a deep breath before nodding. "I understand. Does Changkyun know?"

"Yes. He's been helping people make the move. Him and a noble by the name of Yoo Kihyun."

Felix looks back to the princess and bows low once more. "Thank you for looking after my people."

When he rises, Minji has a smile on her face, her delicate features making her seem extremely young. "It hasn't been a problem. Some of the kindest people I know come from the Firelight colony. They've been through so much and giving them a somewhat decent life is the least that I can do for them."

Felix looks at the princess, his mind a little bit of turmoil. While he doesn't like the current queen of Moonlight for various reasons, Princess Minji seems to be a kind woman with a beautiful soul. She seems to be everything that a princess of her position should be in, but there's something more. Something that Felix can't really put his finger on. He's not sure if it's because she's the next queen or if because she's going to be the queen of Moonlight but there's a slight level of distrust running around in Felix's mind.

He doesn't want the distrust to be there but it's there and he doesn't think that it's going to leave until he sees proof that she's not going to hurt his kingdom in any way.

Sana steps towards Princess Minji. "Your highness, it's time."

"Oh my. I hadn't realized." She stands, fixing the wrinkles in her cloak. "Prefect Minki and Dongho will explain more about your journey to the Temple of Air. I wish you luck in your quest." She looks to the white eyed man before looking at Momo, the quiet female guard in the corner. "Be careful Momo. There might some of Starlight's soldiers walking around. Be wary of them as you pass through the country."

"Yes ma'am," says Momo bowing as the princess and Sana leave the room.

Hwanhee looks to the man in the corner. "Are you sure that you don't want to leave with them?"

The man fixes his stare to Hwanhee, his expression contemplating his next words. "I've been told to follow Lady Momo around for the time being."

Hwanhee nods, a faint shudder running down his spine. Felix can only stare at the man, still trying to figure out where he's come from. Nothing comes to mind, however. Not even the clothes that strangely looks like a uniform.

"If you say so," Hwanhee sighs. "Guys, this is Kim Seungmin. He's part of the gods clan."

Minho takes a couple of steps back before bowing his head and looking at his brother, bewilderment all over his face. "The gods clan?" He looks back to Seungmin, who has a faint smile on his face. "What are you doing down here?"

"With the impending resurrection of Bang Chan," starts Seungmin, his eyes flitting to everyone in the room, "Lord Jeongsu wants to know what else was going on in the world. He sent me and a couple others to watch until Bang Chan walks the world once more."

"That's..." Minho starts but trails off. Seungmin chuckles.

"I know but he wishes to know. He trusts in Lord Hansol in making the right decision when it comes to affairs of mortal souls. That doesn't mean that he's not curious to know about the mortal world." His eyes flit to Felix. "He's also very curious about you, Lee Felix and what makes you so special that Lord Hansol has agreed to your request."

Felix tilts his head to the side, his brows furrowed at Seungmin's words. The lord of all the gods is interested in him? Because he asked a simple question? Because the god of souls has decided to help him in his quest? That didn't make sense to Felix. He isn't anyone special to warrant the attention of a god, much less the _leader_ of the gods. The only thing that he wants to do is to help is kingdom and that's all he's asked for. He's sure that other people of different fallen kingdoms have asked the same thing.

Felix stills his thoughts.

What did make him special then?

That he got angry at Lady Yuju for not helping his people? That was the only thing he had probably done differently.

Momo clears her throat pulling Felix out of his thoughts. "We will leave early in the morning," she says looking to Jeonghan before glancing at Seungmin and looking back to the former Mage Knight. "Princess Minji has given the excuse that I am to visit my sick mother at the border. We cannot waste any time."

"I understand," says Jeonghan before waving and leaving the room in a slight rush. Felix waves after him, only to notice that the other man didn't see.

"Then I will leave to my room," she says, looking at the door and furrowing her brows. "May the gods continue to watch over you and your quest, Sir Felix."

Before she can leave, however, one of the air temple disciples steps forward. He clears his throat and begins to play with his fingers before looking at Felix and smiling slightly.

"And we will leave to ours," he says. "All of you look like you're about to sleep while standing. Our ship to the island doesn't leave until midday tomorrow. We will have time to go over everything before then."

Felix hums. "Then please rest and we shall see you tomorrow for our meeting."

The air temple disciples and Momo then leave the room, a couple of small snickers coming from Momo's mouth as she listens to something the disciple is telling her.

Felix moves to the bed and sits down, looking out into the room. Hwanhee bounces on his heels before looking at his brother.

"I should head back as well then!" He says as turns to Minho, the playful look in his eyes disappearing for a moment. "Minho, please be careful. I don't want Ma to bury anyone else."

"She won't," he says, his tone firm.

"Good. Have a safe journey and visit sometime."

"I should say the same to you."

Hwanhee pauses for a moment before smiling, the expression on his face a mixture of sly and a little creepy. "Make you sure that you're careful when you're sleeping with Soonyoung."

Felix and Jeongin begin to giggle at this. Felix watches the interaction between the two brothers, Minho being embarrassed and flushing a bright red with the words coming out of Hwanhee's mouth. It take a couple more minutes before before he's gone with Seungmin who snickered at the entire thing. Minho looks about ready to strangle his brother's head and bash his head into the wall.

"I will kill him," Minho mumbles, his eyes slightly terrifying. "I will kill him and leave nothing behind."

Felix snorts. "He just cares."

"I hate him."

"He's your brother."

"I hate him and I will kill him."

Jeongin snickers moving to sit on the bed with Felix. "Okay."

Minho narrows his eyes at Jeongin and Felix. "I hate the both of you as well. You just stood there laughing at me."

Felix covers his mouth to hide his laughter. "And what did you want us to do?"

"Stop him?"

Jeongin flops onto the bed. "But what fun would that be? We don't see you like this often."

"And for good reason," Minho mumbles. He's silent for a moment. "I hate all of you."

Felix and Jeongin continue to snicker.

Felix is sitting cross legged on the bed the next morning, trying really hard to look at Jeongin who is still half asleep. The other man has his hair splayed out around the pillow, almost looking like a halo. He keeps blinking as if trying to keep his eyes open and Felix finds it to be one of the cutest things that he's seen in a long while.

"Stahp laughiing," comes Jeongin's sleepy voice.

"I'm not laughing,"

Jeongin rolls his head to look at Felix, his eyes narrowed. "Liar."

Felix pushes his head back to stare at the ceiling when there's a knock on the door. He looks at it, making the motions to get up, the door slams against the wall and Minho grins.

"Wake up assholes," he says. "Here's payback for yes- oh fuck you Lee Felix."

Felix just smiles and Jeongin groans, rolling his head to the door and narrowing his eyes. He begins to reach for something to throw but Felix grabs the pillow and pulls it away from him. Jeongin whines.

"I've never understood," Minho says.

"Understood what?" Felix questions.

"How he's like this in the morning. He's like a different person and it's a bit concerning?"

"Fuck you, Lee Minho," comes Jeongin's voice from the bed. He finally is able to grab a pillow and throw it across the room with surprising accuracy in hitting Minho in the middle of his face.

Minho grunts while Felix just laughs, blinking a couple of times in a little bit of shock.

It takes a couple of minutes but suddenly the room is filled with pillows being throw everywhere, Minho and Jeongin having a pillow fight when they probably shouldn't be. Felix can only pray that the innkeeper doesn't throw them out before they leave later.

There's another knock at the door but that doesn't deter Minho or Jeongin from hurling fluffy pieces of cloth. Felix answers it with a shake of his head before pausing.

"Oh. Hello," he says to the two temple disciples standing in front of him.

They both don't say anything but their eyes slide to the chaos behind Felix. It takes no more than a couple of seconds to shake his head and sigh.

"Let me get them to stop and then we can start."

A few minutes later with Minho sitting on one side of the room and a fully awake Jeongin on the other, the temple disciples come into the room, with wide eyes and muffled laughter behind their hands. There's a curious look in their eyes and it stays there for a little while.

"Shall we begin?" Jeongin mumbles, rubbing a sore spot on his head from where Felix whacked him.

"I guess so," says the first disciple. "My name is Choi Minki and I am one of the prefects for Temple Toph."

"And I am Dongho, another prefect for Temple Toph," says the second.

Felix nods his head at them. Minki continues on.

"In the light of different events surrounding the elemental temples, we were at a Discussion Conference at Temple Suyin."

Jeongin furrows his brows at the odd name. "Temple Suyin?"

"The Temple of Metal," Dongho says looking a little embarrassed. "Our apologies. We have been taught to speak about the temples with their true names."

Minho nods, leaning against the bed. "Ah yes. I've forgotten that not everyone knows about the true name of the temples." He glances to Jeongin and Felix. "It's time for them to learn all of the names just yet."

Minki raises a brow at Minho before looking to a confused Felix and Jeongin. He smiles softly. "All temples have a name, however, the ancients deemed it unnecessary for those who are not part of the temple to know it name."

"That's... interesting," says Jeongin. "Was there a reason for keeping the names away from the common folk?"

Dongho ignores the question Jeongin gives him and instead jumps with a wide smile on his face. "It is! Ancient temple history is always fascinating."

"Dongho," Minki chides.

"Sorry."

Felix blinks a couple of times before a smile blooms on his face. For a second, he thought that the others didn't know anything about pillow fights or having some kind of entertainment but maybe he's wrong, if the sighing and shaking of Minki's head is any indication.

"Originally, we were going to go back by ourselves," he says, "however, when Queen Taeyeon heard about you coming here, she asked us to wait. It will take about six weeks to sail to the Isles." He puts the bags he brought with them. Felix recognizes his things from his horse as well as Minho's and Jeongin's. "And you will need these. Princess Minji gave them to me before you got here. I believe these are your things?"

"Yes, thank you." he pauses, letting their words sink in. "What's going around the elemental temples?"

Minki's expression falls, his eyes staring at the ground. He looks just as troubled as the tone his voice changes to. "We do not know. The creatures of Lord Junhong are becoming violent. Lady Yuju's lava tubes are _said_ overflowing. Even Lord Taeil's flocks have been causing disruptions. The gods are angry about something but we cannot figure it out."

Dongho fixes his stare on Felix. "You've talked the gods recently. Have they said anything?"

"That was months ago," Felix says shaking his head and furrowing his brows. They hadn't told these temple disciples what their quest was from the gods but maybe it was Queen Taeyeon or Princess Minji that informed them. "Lady Yuju and Lord Hansol gave me my quest but nothing else. I didn't really see anyone else aside from Lord Zitao."

For a second Minki looks a little put off before he shakes his head. "Then we must continue our investigation."

"Are you sure that it's the gods that are angry?" Minho says, his gaze flicking to Felix.

Felix doesn't say anything to this. It used to be a quiet thought in the back of his mind, but he didn't act on it, he didn't think of it but it would make sense. It would make so much sense as they've been the ones hiding things. Who knows what the king might be planning for the rest of the world.

"What else could it be?" Minki questions.

Minho takes a couple of moments before answering. "You might want to look at the Kingdom of Starlight."

Minki looks at Minho, bewildered and slightly confused. "We were just there."

"The Kingdom of Starlight is skilled in hiding things," Jeongin says moving from his spot in the corner to standing next to Felix. Felix looks to him, surprised to see anger and pain in his eyes. "For many years, no one knew about the treachery going on inside of the kingdom and I wouldn't be surprised if there's something more that they are doing."

Dongho looks thoughtful for a second, his dark gaze flitting to Felix. "We will take that into consideration then." He looks to Minki. "We should get ready to leave then. The trip to the port won't take long but we should leave lest anyone from the castle come looking for you." He points to the bags. "And you should change. Inside of those bags, we put Temple Toph uniforms and cloaks. They should hide your identity until we get out to sea."

It doesn't take long for them to change into the robes that Minki and Dongho proved for them, Felix's headchain still not on his head. It's only been less than full day since he's taken off the chain and he misses the weight against his forehead. However, he agrees with the rest of the group, he shouldn't put his headchain on until they get the Starfire Isles

They head to one the of the many ports Guinevere had to offer, ships of all sizes anchored to appropriate dock. The captain takes one look at the group, asking to see their seals before letting them onto the ship. It's a little bit of hassle to get the seals out of the bag given to them but the captain only smiles at them, Minki and Dongho using the excuse of they're still new and there are things they're learning.

Felix stood on the edge a deck, watching as Guinevere became smaller the more they travelled. As much as the physically kingdom had interested him and was beautiful, he doesn't know if he would be back.

The first week on the _Catching Moonlight_ is filled with loud laughter, lots of drinking, and stories being exchanged with the crew. Felix heard tall tales about mermaids and selkies, creatures from lands for beyond theirs. Sea shanties could be heard every night, most of the men sounding like dying whales and screeching cats until Jeongin came along. Every man and woman on board stared at Jeongin as he sang songs about mermaids luring sailors to their deaths, songs about the gods, and songs about the creatures that live in the watery depths. To say that Jeongin's voice captivated everyone on board wouldn't be far from the truth.

When he would walk around the ship, Felix would find Jeongin in different corners, humming the songs to himself, trying to get the words right. Felix would hide from Jeongin, just listening to the other man sing. Jeongin found him a couple of days later, hidden within a couple of barrels trying to make himself seem small. Jeongin laughed then but promised that the times that he felt like singing, that he would drag Felix with him.

Jeongin would always come and get him and this quickly became a time where Jeongin would sing stories and Felix would listen, but there were times that he found himself dancing along to the tune and the words being sung. It dragged the attention of almost everyone on board when the two of them were in their own world but no one dared to interrupt them from it. Instead, the spectators would just watch and listen.

Minki and Dongho would ask questions about their journey and the places that they had already been to and Minho was happy to answer few questions. He spoke of tales of the monsters they fought along the way and of the people in Skylight, Moonlight, and Wishlight. Sometimes they would speak of the people of Firelight but that always brought words of hatred to the fallen kingdom and Jeongin trying to not let an angry Felix loose.

On the third week board the _Catching Moonlight_ , Minho's and Jeongin's daily debates started again, only this time it was more about the ocean and the places beyond it. They would throw theories around about the many kingdoms this world had to offer. They couldn't experiment, however, and would often find sailors whose stories they hear to ask questions. Felix could only roll his eyes as the more he was forced to listen.

Their sparring matches also returned, however, instead of the three of them, their group grew to twenty the first night they begin, dropping down to ten, and finally to five. The sailors tried not make the "temple disciples" angry after that, their sheer strength frightening most of the crew.

Felix had first lost to Minki and came to a draw when he fought Dongho, both disciples fighting with a sickle and chain. Jeongin lost to both of them at first with a smile on his face. However, Felix could see the frustration coming from Jeongin. But the true spectacle of the fighting was watching Minho fight with Dongho. Both disciples were fast and fought with the fierceness only top disciples could posses.

During their fights, the entire crew would stare and watch in awe time after time where the fight would seemingly end would and that would be the moment where they would continue to fight. After a couple of days of watching Minho and Dongho fight, there was a handful of people that would come up them and ask for lessons, both men shaking their heads and smiling. Minki and Dongho, however, would be always praise Jeongin and Felix for keeping up with them causing heat rising to their cheeks and smiles on their faces.

With Felix fighting the disciples at an almost every day battle, he found himself continuing to become faster and faster with each day that passed. He was thankful for the teachings and the spars that they would give him, pointing out his mistakes and what they would do if they fought with a longsword.

Dongho pitted Jeongin and Felix together on the fifth week out at sea. He kept his gaze focused on the two men, watching as Felix danced across the deck of the _Catching Moonlight_ and how Jeongin would follow suit. It was later that day, which Dongho told the two of them that they’re movements were beautiful and if they really wanted to, it could tell a story of sadness and pain.

Felix didn’t know what to say to that.

By the last week at sea, the three fake disciples had a name for themselves whose stories would be passed on for many years to come. People would gladly tell the stories of the disciples who danced and sang on the _Catching Moonlight_ as well as the stories they told, the only massive story they would have referring to the adventure at the temples of water.

On the last day of the voyage, the captain thanked the five disciples for tell them about their adventures and for bringing his crew hope and joy once more. They would only smile and thank the captain for allowing them to be on his vessel for the past six weeks. They would say goodbye at the Starfire market where Dongho and Minki waited until Felix was done watching the _Catching_ _Moonlight_ continue with their adventure.

The Starfire Isles are beautiful when Felix first sees them with their white sands and crystal clear waters that would put Lake Mikleo to shame. Tall trees line the port where hundreds of colorful buildings would stand. In different shades of reds and purples, the buildings seem to be various homes and business, a market taking place in front of them. People walk around in clothes to match the brightness that comes with being on an island.

Dongho is the one to lead this time, taking the small group to an inn of pink and green. They stand outside, a couple of people looking at their clothes before bowing to them and continuing on.

"We'll let you rest then," Minki says, wrapping an hand around Dongho's arm. "Dongho and I will be back in a couple of days to escort you to Toph. Feel free to roam around the isle though."

Dongho gives a kind smile. "The market is a place nice if you want to have a date," he says to Jeongin and Felix. "If you like. There's a couple of spots along the shore that are private if you wish for that type of thing."

It takes Felix a second to understand what Dongho is saying. With a red face, he shakes his head and rolls his eyes. Dongho had spent too much time with Minho and it shows.

Minki laughs, joining in on the teasing. "It is! Dongho and Jonghyun have brought me to the taverns and the pubs a few times and I already know they're attractive in our uniform but it's also attractive when they're on the floor too."

Felix mentally screams, throwing a laughing Minho and a smirking Mink dirty looks. He can't believe them... or actually he can, he just didn't think they would do this right now.

"Maybe the two of you should have fun in a bit," Minho says his smile bright. "Please do things that I can report to Soonyoung."

"I hate you," Felix says.

"And I love you," Minho retorts.

Felix groans and marches inside. He doesn't pay attention to his cackling friends and red faced Jeongin. Instead, he orders their rooms, making sure that Minho's room is super tiny and giggling when the innkeeper has a little mercy on him. He takes the key to his and Jeongin's room, shoving the other key in Minho's hand who had come inside, wearing that stupid smirk and wiggling those damn eyebrows that he's beginning to hate.

Jeongin follows a red Felix to their room, also ignoring the wiggling of eyebrows coming from the last person in their party. All the way to their room, Felix wonders what goes on Minho's mind and how Prince Soonyoung can stand someone like him. His thoughts halt when he realizes that both Minho and the prince are cut from the same cloth. It's no wonder they are a couple.

Felix flops on the bed, not bothering to look around the room anyways. He hears Jeongin head into the washroom as his mind begins to wander. Without really wanting to, his mind drifts back to the words coming out of Dongho's mouth about the private spaces along the beach. He thinks of Jeongin and him striping down and running into the water where they would-

Felix stops his thoughts.

It's not _that_ bad... yet.

Oh how he hates that yet hanging in there.

Felix groans and rolls over to lay on his back. He stares at the ceiling and takes a deep breath, trying to control those damn racy thoughts he's having about Jeongin. He blames the others for this. He really does.

Jeongin comes back into the room and Felix closes his eyes. He doesn't know why he does so as the bed dips and a chuckle comes from Jeongin's lips.

"I'm not surprised that they do this or really Minho," he says. "Are you surprised?"

"Not really," Felix says without a second thought.

Jeongin laughs. "I thought you were sleeping."

"Well I didn't want to leave you talking to yourself."

The bed shifts causing Felix to open his eyes. Jeongin hovers over him, his long hair creating a cage around their faces. They stare at each other for a long while, Felix taking in the sight of Jeongin like he's scared something is going to happen to the other. He looks at the dips and curves of Jeongin's, a mental map of how the other looks charts itself in his mind. Jeongin brushes Felix's fringe out of his eyes.

"Well you wouldn't be pretending to sleep if you weren't thinking ridiculous things," he says, leaving a hand against Felix's skin.

"We have ridiculous friends," Felix breathes, leaning into the touch against his face.

"And you have a ridiculous imagination."

Felix sucks in a breath, looking away from Jeongin's eyes. The other man nudges his face so that they're looking at each other again. Before his mind fully empties itself, his last thought races through his mind before settling in the front of Felix's mind. 

"Can I know what you're thinking?" Jeongin asks quietly.

Beautiful. Jeongin is beautiful.

The moment the words echo through his mind, Felix covers his face with his hands, heat rising to his cheeks. He takes a deep breath trying to calm his racing heart when he feels lips against his hands. Felix squeaks.

"Why are you like this?" he whines.

"Because I am head over heels for you." There wasn't a single pause in his words, only a small chuckle and another kiss against Felix's hands.

Felix mentally screams and Jeongin continues to chuckle before pressing another kiss to Felix's hands. Once more the bed shifts.

"Rest then," says Jeongin. "Minho will come later and we'll go eat."

Dongho's words come back to Felix's mind. Quickly, he pulls on Jeongin's sleeve and stares at the other man who is no longer hovering over him. There's still a blush to his cheek. He let's go of Jeongin before breathing in and once more looking into Jeongin's eyes.

"Tomorrow," he starts, "do you want to explore with me?"

Jeongin blinks a couple of times before a wide smile breaks out onto his face, his eyes lighting up like a child during their birthday. "Yes," he says. "I would like that."

Felix is shoving food into his mouth when the door to the inn opens. Minki and Dongho walk in, both of them holding a long gold staff. Minki slides into the seat next to Felix and smiles brightly.

"High Priest Jiho has agreed to meet with you guys," he says, plucking a piece of fruit off Felix's plate.

Felix swats Minki's hand. "When?"

"Today," Dongho says, sighing and patting Minki's hand when he goes for another one of Felix's fruits.

"Or really right now," Minki says with a pout, keeping his hands to himself. 

"Now?" Jeongin asks pushing his plate of fruit to Minki and shaking his head when the temple disciples begins to stuff his face.

"Yes," Dongho says, rolling his eyes and shaking his head at Minki. "We must head to Gyatzo as soon as Felix and Minki are done shoving food down his throat."

Felix shoves food into his mouth before grunting. "I'm done."

Minki pops a couple of fruits into his mouth. "Are you sure about that?"

"Are you?"

Minki chews quickly before popping the last two berries into his mouth. He takes a moment to hit his chest almost like the food had gone down the wrong pipe. He smiles to the group and motions for everyone to follow him.

With a quick thank you and a grab of their weapons, they head threw the town. Like the day before, there's all sorts of people walking around. Merchants from stalls are yelling out prices of fruits and other items they're selling. Children run around, laughter spilling from their mouths. The day morning is warm, the sun beginning to beat down on their bodies.

Felix follows Minki and Dongho outside of town, down a path that takes them to a jungle. Trees are everywhere, some having vines hanging from their branches while others have fruit that fall from the top. There's a couple of animals that hide within the leaves of the trees while others peek from their hiding places, small eyes looking around.

The path that they're on reminds Felix a little bit of the Calming Path that lead to Mikleo only instead of a paved road, the ground is more natural with pebbles and gravel. But there's something about this path that has the same energy as the Calming Path. He can't put his finger on what it is.

Something passes in the corner of his eyes, making him look to the side. He looks through the trees and through the leaves but there's nothing there. Felix furrows in brows in confusion.

Their path changes from tall trees and hanging vines to shrubs the size of Felix. Massive leaves cover the walkway, looking more like dinner plates for giants than coming from a plant. Felix brushes them out of his eye sight trying to continue to follow the two temple disciples, his feet stopping and his eyes widening.

Carved out of a small mountain are pillars made from what looks to be limestone. The pillars are attached to various pointed archways, some of which form tall towers. There's a single statue in the middle of the center archway that Felix begins to assume is the god of air. Birds fly around the temple, some landing on top of the tall spires, others continuing their life to an unknown journey.

Minki lets out a happy sigh before continuing to lead the group to the temple. It doesn't take that much time to reach the spiraling tower of the temple. Before they walk in, however, Minki's face splits into a wide smile.

"Welcome to Zaveid," he says.

The inside of the temple looks just like Felix thinks with grey walls, and tapestries hanging from the ceiling with different symbols representing the air god. A couple of plants have made their home on the walls, small red flowers blooming on the branches and little lights of different colors fly around like they've always been there.

Towards the back of the temple is a single archway that leads into another room Dongho takes them too. Like Mikleo had a statue of Lord Junhong, the water god, in the middle of this white and gold room is a massive statue of the god of air, Lord Taeil.

"I've never seen anything like this," says Minho. "It's kinda beautiful."

"There isn't anything like the Temple of Zaveid in this world." Minki says bowing the to statue along with Dongho. "The air spirits help keep everything in place and they keep it Something lands on Minki's shoulder, a little air spirit that smiles brightly at him. Ironically, it looks like Minki if Minki had short hair. "This is Ren. They are my air spirit and they help me with anything that I need... as long as I am in Zaveid and Gyatzo."

"They?" questions Jeongin.

"The elemental sprits aren't like the Flower Fae. They don't have genders most of the time."

Minki leads them through another doorway.

"I didn't realize that the air temple used the spirits in this way. I've always thought that only when the spirits are called on, do people use them..." Minho pauses. "Besides, I thought the elemental spirits are free? How does Ren belong to you?"

"They don't _belong_ to me. I belong to them."

Felix shakes his head in confusion causing Dongho to chuckle.

"Instead of us choosing our spirit, the spirit chose us," he explains, pressing his hand against one of the stones on wall. With a loud rumble the wall begins to go up showing a small pathway that leads to the outside. "Both Zaveid and Gyatzo are the only temples that have spirits watching over them. In the other temples, you will find they worship and cherish their spirits differently. We treat them more like siblings and friends because of the agreement Lord Taeil had with the god of spirits many years ago."

Felix has to do a double take. He's never heard the god of spirits before... is there a god of spirits? "The god of spirits?"

Dongho nods, ushering everyone through the doorway, letting Minki walk ahead of the group. "Yes. However, there is no record of the god's name or it has been lost for a very long time. Many from our temple and a couple of others have tried to find the name of the god but none have been able to find it."

"Some have decided that Lord Taeil is the god of spirit which is why our temple treats the elemental spirits differently," says Minki from outside. He appears in the doorway and smiles.

This part of the temple looks a lot different from the rest of the temple. A large flat open space sits in front of them with a handful of jewels in the middle and statues forming a circle around them. The hands of the statues are holding hands, raising them to the sky like they're thanking the gods for having them there. Felix's eyes, however, are drawn to a monumental chain next to the jewels in the ground. The chain is thick and without a single form of rust on the metal. Next to it is a gondola looking thing that looks like it travels up the chain.

"This is an airship," says Minki. "It will take us up to the city of Zaveid."

"Up?" Felix questions.

"Up." Dongho agrees, moving to the airship and stepping in.

With hesitant steps, they all step into the gondola, sitting on the benches. It takes a couple of seconds before their ship begins to move. Felix grabs onto the first thing he touches as he watches the ground leave with wide eyes. While he doesn't mind riding on a riding owl or any other flying riding animal, he doesn't know how he feels about riding this thing. He doesn't know what it and he doesn't like how it's beginning to wobble with the wind blowing.

He tells himself that he shouldn't look over the edge but he's curious to see what the island looks like from above. He closes his eyes and counts to three, trying to calm his nerves.

Felix looks down, his breath leaving him.

Underneath him is the Starfire Isles in all of their green luscious glory. Tilts his head the side he sees why the isles are called Starfire. He tilts his head to the other side. Yeah, that makes sense. Depending on the way he views the isles by tilting his head, it's either a flame or a star. He doesn't know how these two can even look close to each other but that's what they are.

"Clouds!" Dongho shouts. "There's nothing to worry about with them, they're just fluffy water pouches."

The gondola enters the clouds, forcing Felix to look away from the green islands. He sees nothing but white all around him, like he's been standing in mist for a long period of time. Reaching out, his fingers pass through air but feel a little damp from the water. He lets his eyes widen.

"This is amazing," he says.

"It really is," Minki agrees. "The only thing is that it _sucks_ when the airship heads through a rain cloud. The amount of water that sits at the bottom of the ship is enough to water all of the plants around Zaveid for a couple of weeks."

They come out of the cloud a few minutes later, a sea of white underneath them. His jaw drops and someone's breath hitches. What a sight to see, a sea of white.

Felix looks over his shoulder, once again his breath is taken away from him as he just _stares_ at the massive floating rock with buildings on top of it. His jaw falls open and his eyes widen the more that he stares at it.

"Welcome to Zaveid, the floating island!" cheers Minki. "Home to the inner temple of Gyatzo."

The airship continues to go up, Felix and the other in awe of the entire thing.

"How is this possible?" Felix asks. 

"The air spirits," Minki says, staring up at the island.

A cry comes from the side followed by a shadow befalling the gondola. Felix looks up to see a couple of riding eagles and falcons in the air, a small number of them landing in an aviary and the other half flying away from the temple city.

Felix has to blink a couple of times trying to take everything in. He understands a little of why the temple of air is in the Kingdom of Moonlight. Both places seem like they don't belong in this world and in a world of fairy tales and myth but they seem more magical than any other place he's been to before.

Minho points to the chain, his eyes still wide. "What's the point of this massive chain? How was this chain forged?"

A couple more birds pass them.

"The chains hold the temple in place so it doesn't float around," answers Dongho. "Not much is known about the great chain, though. It's said that one of the giant goddess wrapped it around the island to keep it from floating away."

Giant goddess? They don't have giant goddesses...?

"It also give a home to the air spirits while they support the city," say Minki.

"If anything where to happen to the spirits, Gyatzo would fall."

"This is amazing," Jeongin breathes after a couple of minutes listen at the conversations around him "Everything is beautiful."

Minki smiles brightly and Dongho nods. "It really is," Minki says. "The underwater city of Mikleo doesn't compare, does it?"

Minho keeps his gaze on the island and on the chain. "They're both interesting," he says. "I've never seen anything like this before. They're just different from how I was expecting these places to be. Lord Hansol didn't prepare me for this but I don't think anything could have prepared me for this." He pauses for a second. "How much longer?"

"We're almost there." Dongho says this as points to an air dock. "High Priest Jiho is waiting there."

The rest of the ride to the air dock is in silence while they all take in how massive the temple city is. The closer they get the more the buildings become prominent. The city looks like a brighter version of Guinevere complete with the spiraling towers, however there are differences. Instead of the same colored roofs all around, the city of Zaveid has roofs ranging from all sorts of colors, at least that's what it looks like from the angle they're coming from. He would have to ride a riding animal to truly see what the city looks like.

His hand goes the bag hanging from his belt, his fingers fiddling with the strings. What would he have to do in order for them to charge the gem for him? He has been thinking about that since they've left the temple of water. He knows that each temple is going to ask for him to do something for them in return, which he's fine with and his understands completely. A favor for a favor, that's how the world works. But that doesn't mean that he can't be curious on what's going to be happening.

The airship finally makes it to port, the docking station a bright white, matching the hair of the man standing the edge of the dock. He smiles at them, his smile friendly enough. Once the ship comes to a complete stop, Minki and Dongho are the first to leave the ship not hesitating to bow to the man with white hair.

"High Priest Jiho," they say together.

The High Priest of air temple is a man who won't stop smiling. His hair is tied in a loose ponytail with a couple of strands falling around his face. His gold eyes seem to be shinning in the sunlight before the disappear into crescent moons. He stands taller than his disciples, fingers interlocked with each other. He wears a white robe with beautiful embroidery all over. Around his waist is a thick pale yellow shawl that falls to the side.

He nods his head towards Felix with a small trace of a smile on his face.

"Welcome to Gyatzo," says the High Priest, he voice not what Felix is expecting. "It's a honor to have you here."

"It's an honor to be here," Felix says bowing back to the man.

"Come, I heard you're looking to charge a gem given to you by a goddess. We best get started on this then. I'm guessing that you're wanting to do this quick before moving onto to the next temple, is that correct?"

Minho nods his head.

"Then please follow me."

High Priest Jiho leads the group through the city roads. Much like the port city on Starfire, there are a bunch of people running around, however, there's a different air about them. They seem to be more put together than the people who ran around the streets. There is some running going around by the children, but some of them are met with little huffs is annoyance while others chuckle at the children.

The buildings remind Felix of the colorful buildings that sit on Starfire with all of their colors. Some of the people's clothing matches with the buildings but because this is a temple city, there are far more temple disciple uniforms around and a uniform that Felix believes might belong to the warriors of the temple.

More riding animals fly over head, truly creating a place that seems far more magical than he would have thought.

They continue to walk until they've seen almost the entire city and towards the back. There are more temple disciples in this area than in the front. The path they're walking continues to lead them a beautiful building made of limestone. It almost matches the temple on the ground but there are no towers and instead of being void of color, the temple is all sorts of colors. Normally, he would have thought with all of the colors on a building, it would look like a child had dunked paint on top of it. However these colors seem to work well far more beautifully than he could have ever imagined.

Inside of the temple is just as magnificent as the outside. White marble and limestone make the walls look longer and the room look brighter. A giant glass window covers the ceiling, the clear skies above them seemingly far brighter than they would have been on the ground. In the center of the room is another statue of Lord Taeil raising his arms up to the heavens and bowl at his feet.

Felix stares at the bowl as it looks similar to Zelo's Chalice. He stops himself from wanting to go over and peer inside to see if there are those aquatic spirits he saw before.

"This is the Bowl of Gyatzo," Lord Jiho says, "and it will be here that we will do the ritual in charging the gem. Do you know how they charged?"

"The air spirits," Minho says, also looking at the bowl.

"We saw how Madam Jihyo charged the water gem," Jeongin says, standing next to Felix.

Lord Jiho runs his fingers around the rim of the bowl, humming at their answers. "That's correct. However, there are certain spirits that will do so. You have to prove your worth and your intent in order for the gem to be charged." He taps on the bowl. "Unlike the Zelo where Lady Jihyo had already caught the water spirits for you, in our temple, you must catch your own spirits and ask them to charge your gem."

And there it is.

Felix keeps his gaze on the bowl, trying to think what he would be doing to ask the air spirits to charge the gem. The only thing that he could think of is to ask a favor but there has to be a catch. Something that would make this more a trial than just a simple request.

"And how do we do that." Jeongin asks. "We're not really ones who can capture spirits just by being told that's what we need to do."

Lord Jiho hums. "Most air spirits are friendly and will do what you ask, but there are those, the ones who will not. These are the spirits that are the powerful ones and you will need two of them."

"And those are the only two that are needed?" questions Felix.

"No," denies Jiho. "You will need at least eighteen spirits, not including the two powerful spirits in order to charge the gem."

Felix looks at the two he began his travelling adventure with and they look back at him. Charing the second gem is super close to him and this he's going to do this. He really has to do this but this trial seems to be something else. Instead of being together with both Jeongin and Minho, they're going to have to spilt up because there's no way that if they stay together that they're going to find the right amount of air spirits that they're going to need.

Minho hums. "You have that thinking look on your face."

"We're going to have to split into two separate groups," says Felix. "That's the only way that I see this going to work out quick enough."

"How will we divide?" asks Jeongin.

"I will go after the powerful spirits," says Felix without really thinking about it. Besides, it made sense for him to be the one going after the powerful spirits. This is his quest after all. While people will be helping him as that's just how the world works, most of the work he's going to need to do on his own, especially something like this.

Minho and Jeongin nod after a couple of moments. 

Jeongin says, tapping his finger to his chin. "I agree with that. This is technically Felix's mission. He'll be able to persuade the air spirits to charge the gem more than we can."

Lord Jiho makes a noise at the back of his throat causing everyone to look at him. He smiles brightly, his eyes shining when he looks at Felix. "You're the one who spoke with the gods then."

"Yes."

"Then come this way. The place where the powerful spirits are differs from where the lesser ones reside. Perfect Minki and Prefect Dongho, show High Knight Jeongin and Soul Keeper Minho where they can capture the spirits. Go over the rules with them and observe. Their trial starts now."

Dongho and Minki slam their staffs against the floor in agreement. A quick glance to Minki has him pointing his chin to Jeongin causing Felix to roll his eyes and ignore the sly smile on his face.

Jeongin pats Felix's shoulder before leaning down and pressing a kiss to his cheek. Felix smiles, trying to stop the heat rising to his cheeks but something tells Felix from the way everyone is looking at him, that's his wish isn't met.

"Good luck," says Jeongin.

"You too."

Dongho gently grips onto Jeongin's arm pulling him away from Felix while Felix watches the four of leave out the way that they came. Felix takes a deep breath before turning to Lord Jiho who smiles at him.

"You're in love," says the High Priest.

"Almost."

"Almost?" Lord Jiho hums. "He loves you."

"I can only hope."

"One does not simply kiss a cheek of another with lovesick eyes."

"I know."

Lord Jiho chuckles and leads Felix to the back of the temple. He places his hand on a stone and much like Zaveid, the wall goes up showing the hidden passage behind it, only this time instead of a hallway that lead outside, the hidden door shows the outside.

Behind the temple is a massive forest that seems to expand forever or at least until the edge of the floating island. The feel of the back forest is completely different from the rest of the island because while the island itself feels magical and mythical this forest feels a lot more powerful, like there is something ancient hiding within the trees. Felix looks over to Lord Jiho who smiles, nods, and keeps his gaze straight. There's a faraway look in the High Priest's eyes before it's gone and he turns to the Firelight Knight.

"I wish you luck within the Forest of Spirits," says Lord Jiho. "It's older than anything else on this sky island and right now, I'm sure that it's going to be older than anything you're going to be seeing in a long time." He presses his hands against Felix's head and closes his eyes, a small hum falling from his lips. Jiho opens his eyes. "This will allow you to speak to the spirits and they will be able to understand you as well. Good luck High Knight of Firelight. May the spirits guide you."

And with that, Jiho seems to vanish within thin air as does the back of the temple. Felix is left in the middle of forest by himself with no way to get out. A little bewildered, Felix looks around trying to get his bearings but nothing seems to make sense. There's too many trees for him to fully understand where he's at. His heart pounds in his chest and he has to make a choice. Which way is he going to be going? Where is he going to be able to start looking for spirits strong enough to help him?

Felix starts to walk around, keeping his eyes peeled open for any spirits, only to find none. All he can see are trees that seem to go on for miles. He's not sure how much he needs to walk to be able to find what he's looking for, so he keeps going.

Every now and then, he hears the trickle of water to which he follows the sound a couple of times. Sometimes, he sees something out of the corner of his eyes, only to find dancing leaves or branches, but never what he's looking for. He sighs during those moments, growing slowly frustrated because he can't see to find the right sound of spirits.

But then the humming starts.

At first, it's quiet, something that he can barely hear but the more that he finds himself lost in these woods, the more that the humming grows louder. He doesn't want to follow the sound at first, not sure if it would be something that might lead him to his death, but his feet have begun to think for him. They follow the sound without a care in the world, taking him through hollowed out trees and around questionable shrubbery. He keeps his eyes open for anything once more, but he doesn't keep his hopes up this time around. The air spirits are hard to find.

While he's walking, Felix gains an appreciation for those who do these for those who ask. Lady Jihyo told him that she had a little bit of trouble rounding up the spirits and now that claim seems more likely than before. It wasn't that he didn't believe her when she said it, it's something that he has to experience by himself.

He doesn't know how long he's been roaming, listening a hum in the air. His feet are growing a bit tired which causes him to sit down against a tree to rest for a couple of minutes. He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, only resting them before he begins again. While he's resting, the humming surrounds him like a thick blanket, keeping him safe and warm. He doesn't know how to properly hum the song, but he tries. He tries to commit the song to memory, wanting to share it with Jeongin when he got back.

Felix smiles to himself.

He wonders how Jeongin and Minho are doing talking to the other spirits. Are they having such a hard time looking for them just like Felix is, or do they actually have a simple task? He tries not to think that, not wanting to grow angry while he’s away from the others but he can’t help the little bit of jealously that he’s feeling since he’s by himself.

Felix sighs.

Opening his eyes, he find little dancing lights in front of him causing him to blink a couple of times before realizing. These are air spirits! They have to be.

Scrambling up from the tree, Felix stands and follows the floating lights, the spirits looking like they’re dancing as Felix walks behind them. He becomes fascinated with the spirits as they continue to move around. They look beautiful in the fading sunlight and it’s a sight that he knows that he’s not going to be seeing again anytime soon.

He follows the spirits as they lead him to a clearing filled with flowers of different kinds and more sparkling lights. They move almost like they’re just going around in circles. He blinks and narrows his eyes, because why these sprirts would be doing something like this? What is the point of moving…

Oh.

They’re not moving in circles, but _dancing_ in circles.

The humming in his ears gets louder and Felix realizes that the humming going around his ears is the music for these dancing spirits. A smile forms on his face the more that he watches the spirits dance, two of them chose to dance by themselves almost like a couple in their own little world.

His mind starts to wonder then, what it would like to dance around with spirits with his loved ones. Would they be caught up in the dance that they don’t notice the other people and the spirits around them or are they focused on the spirits, watching their movements and trying to copy them? He think of dancing with Jeongin which causes heat to rise to his cheeks. He shakes his head at this. He needs to focus.

He looks around at the dancing spirits, watching them become in synch with each other when a spirit catches his eye. It spins around beautifully, leaving trails of light in its path. He doesn't know how it notices him watching it, but it does and it flies towards him. They circle around Felix before tiny hands are grabbing his fingers and trying to drag him into the middle of the clearing. The spirit spins him around and soon enough Felix is dancing along with the spirits and copying their movements. The spirits seem pleased as excited chatter fills his ears. Felix begins to feel free and unrestrained.

The light surrounding the spirit vanishes and he's left with one of the tiniest humans he's ever seen. They fly around Felix's head, no bigger than the length of his index finger. The spirit's hair is cut short, their dark hair in soft waves. Their eyes are dark when they look Felix, a wide smile stretching across its face. It bows to Felix.

"Hello, hello!" the spirit cheers.

"Hello," Felix replies.

"You dance beautifully."

"I had help."

The spirit spins in the air before looking at Felix and shaking its head. "Are you sure about that? You look like you knew what you were doing."

Felix smiles at the spirit, resisting the urge to poke the tiny cheeks. He's beginning to understand why Jihyo had begun to poke the cheeks of the water spirits. "No I had help. I normally dance like I have two left feet."

The spirit tilts its head in confusion. They tilt it to the other side, like they're trying to make sense of Felix's words. "Two left feet?"

"Yes," says Felix. "It's an expression that means I can't dance very well."

"I've never heard that before." They twirl around Felix's head. "Two left feet! He has two left feet!" They stop and look back to Felix. "My name is Rocky, human stranger who dances with two left feet."

"I'm Felix."

"From the Firelight Kingdom!" They fly to his head chain. "Your head chain gives it away." They tap on the gems almost like they're memorized by the glittering gem. "Was there something you needed? Jiho doesn't allow people to come back here very often as he's afraid they'll taint our sacred land."

Felix looks around and notes that he's never seen a place like this before nor has he ever felt a place like this. It feels old and very powerful. It feels like what Felix thinks the old wilds would have felt like, full of magic and magical life but like all things they don't know about their world, the magic age came to a close, leaving very little of the magical wilds.

"I'm looking for some help to charge my air gem," Felix says, patting the pouch at his waist.

The light in Rocky's eyes becomes intense. They flutter around in the air before disappearing. "You have an air gem? Those are rare and very dangerous." Rocky's voice comes from his waist, causing Felix to look down to the air spirit.

"I know. Lady Yuju gave them to me for a quest."

Rocky looks up at Felix before flying eye level. Those eyes that seemed to be curious about Felix suddenly feel very old, like there's knowledge within Rocky's mind that Felix will never understand.

Rocky looks back down to the pouch tied to Felix's waist, his eyes beginning to shine in a different light than before. They blink a couple more times before leaving Felix within the clearing, other air spirits fluttering around nearby. They haven't dared to come to Felix in what he believes is fear. Felix can only watch the area in which Rocky had left.

They appear again, this time they hang on Felix's nose and pulls with all of their strength.

"Follow," grunts the spirit. "Follow me."

Felix doesn't hesitate and follows the spirit back into the thicket of the trees.

"It must be important for the fire goddess to give you a quest," Rocky says after a while.

"It is," replies Felix.

"Was there another god who gave you a quest?"

"Yes?"

"Who?"

"Lord Hansol."

Rocky stops and stares for a moment, their eyes wide. They open and close their mouth for a moment before shaking their head, their words lost to Felix. They begin to hum and continuing on.

"My, my. Don't you have an easy quest," they say as they pull Felix into another clearing. This one is much smaller than the one Felix had found them.

There's something different about this clearing, though. Something that takes Felix a little while to put his finger on. It's not until Rocky pulls Felix to a tree at the edge and sees a tiny version of a house does Felix understand. Rocky, on the other hand, sits at the edge of their house, their legs kicking at the air.

"Would you mind telling me what's going on and why the goddess of fire and the god of souls are asking for your help?" They ask.

Felix hesitates, his eyes dropping down.

"I won't be able to help you if you don't."

With those words in the air, Felix lets Rocky know everything about the quests given to him by the two gods. It takes a little time and by the time Felix is done with his explanation, Rocky is quiet for a long while. They click their tongue before looking at Felix and nodding their head.

"I understand then. You're definitely going to need some strong spiritual energy for that and I know just the spirits to help."

Felix cocks a brow, watching as the spirit fidgets nervously. "I feel a but coming along."

Rocky bites their lips before sighing and shaking their head. "They're not the kindest spirits but if you do something for them, they will help."

"What do I have to do?"

Rocky shakes their head, another sigh falling from their lips. "That's up for them to decide. I shall take you them and you can ask." They point to the left of them. "They are that way and about a day's hike away from here. It's getting late in the day and we won't make it before nightfall. We will rest here before leaving at first light."

It's now occurring how much time has passed since he first entered the forest. He doesn't remember seeing the night sky in the forest before which means that it's still the first day that he's been in here. Lord Jiho didn't give him a time frame, but he can only hope that he's doing this task fast enough.

Felix begins to set a place for him to rest for the night with Rocky flying above him. The air spirit asks for stories about Felix's past and who he's travelling with. Felix shares his adventures and Rocky's eyes just shine so bright.

"Are you not allowed to leave the island?" Felix asks once Rocky settled back down against their tree branch.

"I can! I've just been super used to living in this place that the moment I leave Zaveid's magical power, I'll get sick. The only way for that not to happen is for me carry a piece of this forest with me but even then, the magic doesn't last for long."

Felix's mouth forms an o. "Have you ever lived outside of this forest?"

"I have!" says Rocky happily. "But that was a long time ago. I barely remember it but I remember the kingdom I lived in. They had such pretty plants, the people were extremely kind." They point to Felix's headchain. "They didn't wear chains like the current Light Kingdoms but the clans had tattoos. They were so beautiful..." they trail off, the smile on their face not leaving.

Felix hums to this, a small smile on his face. "We wanted to see the world, Chan and I because we know that there's just so much more than the Light Kingdoms."

Rocky blinks at him a couple of times, like they're trying to process something. "Chan?"

Felix smiles softly, patting the bag at his waist. "Yes. He was my best friend and the crown prince of our kingdom."

Rocky closes their eyes for a long few minutes that Felix begins to think they've fallen asleep. It's not until Rocky's eyes snap open with an question forming within their eyes does Felix realize that they've been thinking this entire time.

"Does he look sleepy?" Rocky asks, dark eyes looking into Felix's.

"Sleepy?"

Rocky nods enthusiastically. "Sleepy! Is he kind and always trying to help someone?"

"Yes?"

"And he has pretty eyes... but I guess I can't really see them. They look blind to me right now."

"Huh?"

Rocky smiles, laying down on the branch, their eyes looking over Felix's shoulder. "A few years ago, there was an animal that came to our forest and started to destroy everything in sight. We tried to fight it off but it was too much for us and no matter how many times we told the disciples of what was going on, they could never fight anything. The creature would just disappear when the disciples came and reappear when they left. Even the disciples that stayed for a few months never saw the creature that came to terrorize us. But then a soul piece came and changed everything." Rocky trails off. "He was able to subdue the monster at first but anytime the soul tried to leave, the creature would go rampant. So we asked the soul piece to stay until we figured something else out."

Felix nods, listening to the story, finally connecting the dots. "And let me guess, you can't find anything and the soul piece is still there."

"Yes! We've befriended the soul piece and his name is-"

"Chan. Part of Chan's soul is here."

Rocky nods solemnly. "It seems like it."

Felix turns silent as the story begins to mull in his mind. He should have realize that Rocky was talking about Chan when they were asking if Chan looked sleepy and while Felix might have never noticed it, hearing it now, it did sound a lot like him.

While he's happy that he knows where a piece of Chan's soul is, he's also torn about wanting to take it. He takes the soul piece away from here, then the creature that Chan's soul piece had subdued would run rampant again. Chan wouldn't like that and he's sure that Rocky wouldn't like that either. Felix is left with a hard decision, one that he doesn't know if he can make by himself. Felix looks to Rocky and smiles sadly.

"I'm going to turn in for the night," Felix says instead of trying to figure it out. He's going to think about this when his mind isn't turning and begging him to destroy what might be the last piece of the magical wilds.

Felix dreams of blood and screams that night. He dreams of arrows and cackling laughter. He dreams of reaching out to touch but not being able to. He dreams of smile and soft laughter. He dreams of tears and a goodbye.

He opens his eyes, the sky a brilliant blue above him. He feels something running down his face but he doesn't let his arm move to touch it. Instead he just lies there for a couple more minutes. When he does get up though, Rocky is sitting on their branch, a sad expression on their face. They open their mouth as if to ask a question but closes as if they thought better of asking a question.

"We should get going," Rocky whispers, like they're scared to frighten Felix.

"Sure."

Rocky gives Felix some berries that they found in the forest before they're off. For a while Felix is silent and in his head. With any longer nightmares, he closes his eyes and all he can see are the pictures and the events that still haunt him. He sees Chan's smile after he had been shot by arrows, how he walked up to the traitor and told him that he did well, and how his hand became stained red moments later.

When he has nightmares like this, Jeongin is the first person to take notice, running his fingers through Felix's hair trying to calm him down. He would begin talking then, of anything and everything that would come to mind. Felix had asked about it once and with the straightest face he had ever seen on Jeongin's he said "I just want to see you smile. Your nightmares don't define you, so the best that I can do is try to make you smile afterwards."

Rocky clears their throat and takes Felix out his mind. The air spirit has taken a liking to Felix's shoulder, flying in front of Felix just when they need to point Felix to the proper direction.

"Your face is turning red," they say.

"It's what?" Felix touches his cheeks.

"Turning red." Something passes through his face. "Are you thinking about someone you like?"

Felix's cheeks heat up more. "No."

"Come, come tell me," the air spirit sing songs.

"No."

"What are they like? Are they nice to you? Do they know how to dance like you? Are they fun to be around? Feeeeelix. Tell me more about the person you're thinking about!!"

Felix laughs at the sound of Rocky whining, the air spirit fluttering around trying to get Felix to talk.

"He's kind and sweet." Felix says. "He thinks of other people first and he's been my partner for missions for years and it's odd if he's not the one watching my back. I've only seen him dance a couple of times, despite the man balls Prince Soonyoung throws." His mind conjures up an image of Jeongin arguing with a smile on his face. "Yes, he's fun to be around."

"Oh?" Rocky says, the tone of their voice going higher.

"His king was the one who put us on this mission together because he finally wanted us to pop the question."

"Oh?"

"But it doesn't feel like it's time yet."

"Oh."

"It's close though."

"And do you love him?"

Felix shrugs his shoulders. "I'm not sure."

"Oh?"

"I know he means the world to me and there's a lot I would do for him, I'm just?"

The air spirit snickers before patting Felix's cheek. "You're in love with him."

"Maybe."

Rocky huffs this time and slaps Felix's cheek a couple of times. "You're in love with him."

Felix rubs his cheek, gently nudging Rocky away from the small stinging against his skin. Rocky continues to snicker, every now and then going to Felix's cheek, patting it, and mumbling the words "you're in love with him".

As they continue to walk, more small talk passes. Felix laughing too hard from the stories Rocky tells him about the air sprits rebelling from Lord Jiho a couple of years prior because they didn't have enough people in their forest, to the time that an air spirit named N would drag other spirits by the ears if they hadn't eaten in a couple of days. Rocky rubs their ears.

"Never get your ear pulled by N," they say. "It hurts."

In turn, Felix tells about the silly things Minho and Jeongin find themselves caught in. He tells them the story about how Minho won the heart of a couple who claimed that he was their third, both of them in tears when Minho said that he was promised to another. The couple made Minho promise that if he loses the man he loves, then he'll come for them. Rocky wouldn't stop giggling when Felix told him about Minho's reaction that.

"You know," Rocky says when they're about halfway through the day, "you smell like flowers."

"Flowers?"

"Yes! It's almost like you have a flower fae tied to your soul."

Felix nods slowly. "I do."

"Oh?"

"Her name is Elkie and she's a cherry blossom fae."

"Oh? Cherry blossom faes are known for their oracle like powers and their teaching ability. Did she teach you things?"

"Yes. She taught me a lot of things. How tell when someone is lying, how to accept and use defeat as a tool to become stronger." He pauses. "Just recently, I think she's been teaching me again. I think she's teaching that it's okay to forgive myself."

Rocky hums. "I'm sure she is."

The walk continues until the sky is colored in pinks and oranges. Rocky sucks in a breath when they reach a glade with a single tree in the middle. Little lights flutter all around the tree, as if they're dancing around. Some zip around like they have important business somewhere that isn't dancing around this tree.

Rocky has Felix stay on the edge of the glade while they go and have a chat with someone. Felix has no choice but to wait.

The oranges and pinks turn into darker colors before the sky is black and the moon shines down on him. The sky island isn't like main land Moonlight with the glowing night plants that doesn't mean the night isn't just as magical.

With their lights, the air spirit continue their dance around the tree before they all land on it. The tree glows a brilliant white for a couple of minutes, before the light dims to something much softer. He hears chattering coming from the tree and while he wants to and see what's happening, he stays rooted in his spot, waiting for Rocky to come back.

Rocky comes back a little later, dragging an upset air spirit with them. The new air spirit looks at Felix in disgust, like he's the reason why their entire family is dead. They hover in front of Felix's face, a tsk sound coming out their mouth.

"You're the one asking for help?" they say with a roll of their eyes. "Just another human asking for things. Why did Jiho send you here?"

Felix raises a brow at the attitude coming from the air spirit. To say that he's confused on why this air spirit is acting the way that he is, is an understatement. He's very confused.

The new air spirit tsks again causing Rocky to panic a little bit.

"Can you form words or not? I'm beginning to think that once again, all humans are stupid."

"Leo please let him speak," Rocky pleads.

Leo rolls their eyes, crossing their arms over their chest. "If he can't speak properly then why bother?"

"Excuse me?" Just what is with this spirit's attitude?

"You heard me."

"I'm beginning to think that I didn't." Felix narrows his eyes before looking to Rocky before mentally sighing. Maybe it's Moonlight, but there's something about this kingdom that doesn't like Felix and that Felix doesn't like. He had a secret wish coming to Starfire that maybe this would be a little different and it is but there's always that one. "Is there someone else we can talk to? I don't want to deal with an arrogant asshole."

"Felix..."

Leo scoffs, their wings fluttering in anger. They fly to stare in Felix's eyes. "You think I'm the asshole? Humans are assholes. They think they know everything."

"And you do?"

"I know a lot more than you do."

"Well good for you, general asshole. Good. For. You."

Rocky pushes Leo away from Felix's face. Their brows are furrowed and they're biting their bottom lip. "You two please." Rocky sighs. "And no, Felix. We have to talk to Leo. They're the one of the only ones who have enough power to charge your gem."

Leo snorts and recrossing their arms over their chest while Felix rolls his eyes. He wants to stop interacting with this air spirit but of course, he can't and he actually needs the help from the general asshole. Felix sighs.

"Fine."

Rocky sighs in relief. "And Leo, Sir Felix needs our help."

Leo huffs, their eyes glaring daggers. "Of course he does. That's why he's here. That's why Jiho would send anyone back here is when they need our help. Let me guess, you want us to charge a gem for a spell or something of yours."

"Not my spell, Lord Hansol's. I'm a quest given to me by Lord Hansol and Lady Yuju."

Leo perks as if Felix's quest interests them. "Oh? Do tell."

Felix grits his teeth. He knows that Leo is will protected on this island and that nothing is going to happen to the air spirit, but he can't find it in himself to let the other know more about the quest. "That's all you need to know," His voice growing hard. "This is matter of security and only those who can be fully trust can know about my mission."

Leo shakes their head like they're disappointed in the choice that Felix had made. "I see. Well then I can't help you."

"Why?"

"I need to know what I'm getting my nose into before I can agree."

Felix takes a couple of deep breaths before he gets really angry at the attitude of the air spirit. He want to charge this gem and if Rocky says that this spirit is one of the strongest air spirits, then it has to be them. Taking a deep breath, he tries to form correct words.

"I'm sorry," Felix says. "But this mission is on a need to know basis. All you need to know is that it was given to me by the gods and if I can't get this gem charged then all hope is lost for my kingdom."

Leo looks Felix up and down like they're trying to think of something to say.

"Firelight. Your kingdom is Firelight."

"Yes."

"Like the soul piece keeping the monster at bay."

Felix pauses, swallowing the lump in his throat. "Yes."

"Felix knows Chan!" Rocky says causing Leo's wings to still for a moment. For a few seconds Felix watches in horror as Leo begins to fall before their wings start to beat again. "Chan is dear to Felix."

Leo narrows their blue eyes before speaking "How do you know Chan?"

"Prince Bang Chan is the man I served," Felix says without his voice shaking.

"There's an 'and' to that sentence," points out Leo.

Felix debates with himself for a couple of seconds before looking down, taking a deep breath, and looking back at Leo. "He's my best friend and the one that our kingdom needs the most right now."

The air around Leo begins to dissipate, almost like they're becoming more understanding of what Felix is trying to do. The face of the air spirit looks contemplative for a couple of minutes before they look back at Felix with slightly narrowed eyes.

"Does your mission have something do with Chan?" he asks.

"It has everything to do with him," The Firelight Knight responses.

Leo nods to himself. "Then I will help you if you subdue the beast Chan is. I have a feeling that you're going to need the soul piece that's here."

Rocky's wings flutter nervously. He looks in between Felix and Leo. "Are you sure that's the best idea?"

"It's the only thing that we can do," Leo says, looking off into the distance. "The human needs the soul of the prince. If you don't die then I will help you. You have until tomorrow night to do so." They continue to look at something Felix can't see before they turn their eyes to Felix, the blue eyes glowing slightly. Since the very beginning of this conversation, the air spirit has seemed to want nothing to do with Felix and the reason he came here, but in learning that he's someone close to Chan his attitude and his body language has changed.

Felix smiles to himself. Chan really does befriend everyone he comes across.

They glance to Rocky. "Take him to the beast's lair."

Rocky nods and suddenly it feels like their audience with the air spirit is over. Leo doesn't glance back as he flies towards the tree in the glade but there was something about their expression that had give Felix a little bit of hope.

Rocky continues to flutter nervously as they take their place on Felix's shoulder once more. They keep their gaze straight and their bottom lip in their mouth.

Unlike the rest of this forest, this part is different. It feels more sinister, like there's something watching their movements. The scent of something rotting lingers in the air causing Felix to cover his nose. The leaves are thicker in this part of the forest, almost like it's warning Felix not come any closer.

"I'm sorry about him," Rocky says a few minutes later.

Felix shakes his head and removes his hand from his face. "I'm sorry about me," he says wrinkling his nose. "I just hate it when someone doesn't allow someone else to talk or makes some kind of general assumptions. It seems to be a common factor in Moonlight recently too." He waves his hand in front of his face as if putting it behind him. "But enough of that. What do I have to fight?"

"A gumiho."

Felix pauses in his steps in disbelief. He can't whirl his head around but he can gently jab his finger in Rocky's cheek. "That's going to take a lot more than just the tomorrow's deadline," he mumbles. "I won't be able to do anything properly. I'm not a temple disciple and I don't have the right tools." 

"I know," says Rocky, holding onto Felix's finger as if trying to make the human stop poking his cheek. "Which is why, you're going to be resting right now. Rest for a couple of hours before you go and fight."

For a couple of hours, Felix leans his head against the tree he's sitting against. He doesn't speak to Rocky, not wanting to cause more worry to the little air spirit than he already is. He still doesn't know how he's going to be subduing this gumiho when he knows nothing about performing these types of spells. Yes, he knows _some_ magic but that's _some_ magic and not temple disciple magic. He remembers the tune that Lady Jihyo sang when subduing the Azul but will that really help in the way that he needs?

Felix sighs.

The allotted time Rocky had given Felix is up, leaving the little air spirit restless and still fluttering around Felix's head. They lead them into a clearing the same size as the one that Rocky lives in and in the middle is a giant sleeping creature. The fur on the gumiho is white with a long red stripe down the middle of its back. There's nothing that Felix can see as it's body is curled up, it's face against the flat of its belly.

"I'll be in the trees watching," says Rocky, his wings fluttering. "Good luck, Felix."

Felix takes a deep breath before taking a step into the clearing. He looks around for any ideas when something comes at him. He jumps away from the white shadowy thing but it follows his movements no matter which way it goes. He feels himself freeze when it sinks in.

He stops moving and the apparition stops in front of him, slowly forming a humanoid figure. The face takes form and Felix has to take a deep breath. Chan looks surprised for a second before smiling softly and reaching out. Something faint brushes against Felix's cheek.

Chan lowers his gaze.

"Hey," Felix says, his voice cracking.

Chan motions behind him.

"I need to subdue it."

The soul piece nods before shrugging.

"I might have to mortally wound it and hopefully bring it to the disciples since I can't kill it."

Chan shakes his head rather quickly.

"Then how?" Felix sighs. "I'm not a disciple."

Chan motions a lot but Felix can't tell what soul is trying to say. Chan begins to look frustrated because he can't seem to get his point across and Felix begins to feel a little embarrassed since he cant understand. Chan taps his head.

"Think?" Felix questions.

Chan nods slowly before looking back to the bag where the other part of his soul is. He points to the bag.

"Your soul bag? What about it?"

Chan points again but this time to himself before pointing back to the bag.

"You want to go in the bag?" Felix asks, hesitating.

Chan nods and something clicks in the back of Felix's mind.

If Chan goes into the bag, then he'll be close to being a halfway completed soul. He's not a soulkeeper which means that he doesn't know what's going to be happening next but there's that look in Chan's eyes that Felix knows too well, then it's not going to hurt.

Without hesitation this time, Felix grabs the bag and Chan's soul goes right in.

The air in the clearing stills and Felix takes a deep breath. Now that he has Chan's soul and he doesn't know what the soul is planning, he's going to have to wait.

The gumiho begins to stir the moment Felix takes a step back. Felix freezes, his eyes wide.

What does Felix know about gumihos? Not much, to be honest. He knows that they're fire based creatures and the more tails they have, the more powerful they are. From where he's standing, he can't tell how many tail it has. He knows that because gumihos are fire based creatures and that their weakness is water but there's none of that right now...

But when Rocky was leading him, he did notice that there's a stream nearby so maybe he can use that to his advantage. He just needs to be able to lure the creature towards him in order to do so. And it might work until Chan comes out of the soul bag and helps him however he's meant to help him.

The gumihos eyes open, blinking a couple of times, its black eyes unfocused for a second before they come to. It keens and stretches, looking around almost like it's looking for something. It's catches on pretty quickly that Chan is no longer in the clearing which frightens Felix a little bit. A scared and nervous creature is far more dangerous than one that knows what it's doing.

The gumiho's eyes land on Felix, the two of them staring at each other for a couple of seconds, before it bares its teeth. Slowly, the creature stands, its tails sticking up one by one, seven of them in all. It begins to hiss, Felix mentally counting down until the gumiho begins its attack.

The first attack comes in the form of snapping teeth near Felix's face. He dodges the teeth and draws his sword and pointing towards it. The creature snarls and snaps its teeth again, _Haesbich_ going in between massive incisors. Saliva drops from its mouth, as it tries to bite down on the steel. Felix keeps his sword in place.

The gumiho lets go and jumps back, Felix doing the same.

"Chan," Felix says.

Chan's bag doesn't move.

Felix grunts and glances at his bag. He hears the rush of the steps before he feel the pain. He sails through the air, his back hitting a tree trunk, the force of the hit causing him to cough and feel something trickle on the side of his mouth. He gets back on his feet, the world swaying just a little.

His sword feels a little heavy in his hands but he pushes that thought out of his mind and tries to fight against the creature once more but the throw had done its job. 

Felix is slower.

The gumiho snaps its teeth and swipes at Felix, some of the attacks missing and other attacks landing on their marks. It's not until the creature actually bites down on Felix's arm, blood dropping to the ground in thick pools does he yell. He can feel his grip on his sword slipping but he tightens his hand the best that he can.

It takes a couple of tries before Felix punches the massive fire fox in the nose, the reaction of biting Felix's arm harder and throwing him against another tree is what happens. A snap fills Felix's ears, pain coursing through his body as he stills against the ground. His breathing is labored and his vision is slowly becoming black but this is nothing. He can still fight.

Despite his body yelling at him to stop moving, Felix gets up very slowly. He grips onto his sword and counts to five. That will give him time to try and stab the gumiho in the eye. He just needs to summon the energy to do so.

The gumiho comes and Felix raises his sword but it has grown smarter since they're started to fight. Teeth pierce Felix's legs causing him to scream, his entire body feeling like it's on fire. Leaning on the gumiho, Felix digs in his fingers into the fur, gripping as hard as he can. The fire fox lifts it's head, Felix going with him. Something snaps, Felix yells.

The gumiho begins to shake its head.

There's too much black in Felix's vision but he can use this momentum to try and stab the eyes. With shaky arms, he raises his sword the best that he can, steadying the sword near the eye of the beast. The gumiho shakes its head once again.

Felix's sword goes through.

The gumiho howls and drops Felix.

"Fucking hell," he mumbles when his body lands on the ground. His vision goes black.

Felix wakes up with his back to a tree, his body screaming in pain. Blearily, he opens his eyes to take in his surrounding, finding nothing but trees and sparkling lights in front of him. A worried face looks at him in one of his eyes, dark eyes blinking back tears.

Felix tries to move.

"Don't you dare move," sasses a voice.

"What?"

"You'll open up your wounds," sasses the same voice.

"Who?"

The small face in front of flutters nervously, his wings moving quickly... Wings? Why would a person have win...

Oh.

"Leo, we need to get Jiho!"

"Ken and Rome have gone to get the humans. They'll be here as soon as they can."

Bits and pieces of how he ended up like this comes to his mind but he doesn't remember falling against a tree.

"The gumiho?" He breathes, his eyes falling shut.

"She's on your lap," says Leo." You're going to have to take her to the Temple of Canines for treatment, though. They'll be able to help you."

Felix hums, the sound jolting through his body. He yelps his conscious beginning to fade out.

"I will help charge your stupid gem," says Leo.

"As will I! Leo already asked me," says another voice that Felix doesn't recognize.

He tries to smile but the pain in his body is too severe. He jolts again, letting loud wail pass through his lips.

"You did more than enough to prove your worth for our help, Lee Felix," says the new voice. "It would be a shame on us if we didn't help you like you did us."

The pain causes Felix's mind to fully shut down, Leo's words echoing in his mind.

"Rest well, Firelight's flower knight. Jiho and his men are on their way."

Something soft is under Felix's fingertips and there's a gentle pressure all around him. He opens his eyes to see a ceiling and not the sky like he's been used to for the past couple of days. His body is sore, a couple of aches and pains in different places, but it's not like before.

The bed he's laying on shifts causing his eyes to snap to a sleeping Jeongin. There's a bandage wrapped around his head and worry passes through Felix's mind. What on earth happened to Jeongin for him to be wounded with a head wound? While he knows that head wounds just bleed a lot but that doesn't the worst case scenario won't appear in his mind. He reaches out to brush Jeongin's bangs away from his face but a sharp pain hits him in the ribs and his breath hitches.

Something moves out of the corner of his eyes and very slowly Felix looks over to see a flying Rocky. There are tears pouring out of their eyes as they rush to Felix, their tiny body colliding with Felix's nose.

"You're awake!" They say.

"Hello," Felix whispers, mindful not to wake Jeongin.

"You've been asleep for a couple of days and Jeongin wouldn't leave your side. I think he just went to sleep about an hour ago or so?"

"This idiot."

Rocky smiles. "He really cares."

"I know." Felix moves his hand once more, ignoring the pain in his side to brush away the bangs from his face.

"Oof," says Rocky causing Felix to look at the air spirit. There's a shit eating grin on his face. "And so do you. Oooo, it was Jeongin who you would think about when your face went red, wasn't it?"

Felix covers his face with his hands. "Shut up."

Rocky giggles and once Felix moves his hands from his face, he see that their spinning in circles. They stop spinning for a second to look at Felix, his shoulders sagging. "I'm really glad that you're okay. You wouldn't wake up no matter what. I think Jiho was getting close to have someone take Jeongin away from your bedside if something happened to you."

Felix turns his head to look at Jeongin who's still sleeping.

"Your other friend observed the gem ritual yesterday when they got back," Rocky continues. "He seemed to be in a rush to get it done?"

"Something must have happened then," Felix whispers, a course of worry filling his mind.

"And the gumiho is here. The temple disciples have taken a liking to her."

Felix reaches for Jeongin's hand, wanting to have something to ground him for a couple of minutes. He intertwines their fingers, closes his eyes and gently squeezes the limp hand in his.

Rocky stops talking when Felix closed his eyes. There's a slightly pressure against his forehead like the air spirit has decided that they need to be sitting there.

Even though his eyes are closed, doesn't mean that he can't hear the sounds of room. He can hear the clanking of medically supplies coming from somewhere, quiet mumblings, and footsteps. All sounds that he's been used to for a long time. Even the sound of Jeongin waking up is familiar to him.

He frowns.

If Jeongin is injured then he needs to rest.

"Felix!" Jeongin breathe out, causing Felix to peek an eye open.

"Shh. I'm sleeping."

A quiet laugh passes through his lips causing Felix to smile a little bit. Jeongin doesn't say anything else for a couple of seconds before there's a gentle pressure of lips against his forehead. Felix's eyes snap open.

"Wha-?"

Jeongin is hovering over him, brushing hair out of Felix's face and his eyes roaming around his face like he's scared that Felix is going to disappear. "You're a little shit, you know that? I was so worried when they brought you back."

"I'm your little shit," Felix whispers.

Jeongin can only laugh, dropping his forehead against Felix's. They stare at each other for a moment before Felix's eyes drift up to the bandages wrapped around Jeongin's head.

"What happened to you?" he asks.

Jeongin shakes his head, a sigh falling from his lips. "Many things."

"Like?"

"Your boyfriend likes to play hero," Minho's voice booms in the room.

Jeongin glances over his shoulder and stands up. Felix just turns his head, his eyes looking up and down at Minho. There's a couple of bandages on his arms and around his neck and a beautiful yellow and green bruise on the side of his face. Felix furrows his brows at the sight.

"Something tells me that you do the same," he says. "Are you okay?"

"You got that right." Minho's eyes are dark when he answers. "I forgot how cruel the world can be."

Minho walks to Felix's bed placing small bags on the bed. He taps the one with the gems. "I got the air gem charged."

"I heard."

"I don't think I'll ever get over how enchanting the ritual is for it," Minho says grabbing the bag and pouring out the gems. He grabs the air gems and inspects it, the yellow gem sparkling in the light.

"Maybe I'll get to see it again later," says Felix.

"Maybe but for you should be resting. You did take quite the defeat after all."

Felix sighs, closing his eyes for a couple of seconds before opening them again. "I suppose you're right. I don't remember anything though. I just remember lots of blood and stabbing the gumiho in the eyes. She dropped me after that so I don't know anything...."

Jeongin furrows his brows. "Really?"

"Yeah. I don't even have glimpses of anything, it's just... black."

Rocky flies in front of Felix's eye, smiling widely. They clap their hands together. "I can help with that because you see, sound travels in the wind so it's easy to find where the sound travelled to and we can listen in. I can't show you anything though. I think that goes with the water spirits."

"You can let us listen in on what happened?" Felix asks. "That's interesting."

Jeongin and Minho look at each other.

"Come again?" Jeongin says.

"Who are you talking to?" Minho questions. "And what is this little light?"

Felix tilts his head to the side. "It's an air spirit... You can't understand them?"

"No?" Jeongin questions. "Am I supposed to?"

"You can talk to elemental spirits?" Minho asks, his eyes widening. "I thought that was only for temple prefects and higher?"

"If you're talking to an elemental spirit, does that mean you've befriended it?"

Felix nods slowly and begins to push himself up. Something tells him that he's going to be sitting up for this. "The spirit's name is Rocky and they've just told me that they'll be able to find the sound that floated in the air, if we're curious to know what happened."

Jeongin shakes his head. "I don't think I can listen to that. All that matters right now is that you're alive and going to be okay."

Minho hums. "I agree, although I'm curious on how you're able to talk to elemental spirits."

"It's because I gave Felix the power to talk to the spirits," says Lord Jiho as he walks into the room.

Flying above his head is Leo and other spirit that Felix doesn't recognize. It has blond hair and mischievous eyes as it flies around Leo, who comes closer to Felix.

"You're okay," Leo says. "I'm glad."

"Yes!" says the other spirit. "Leo likes to pretend that they're all tough, but they're really not!" The spirit gasps. "Oh! I didn't introduce myself! I'm Ken and I'm the other spirit from the forest. It's nice to see that you're okay and doing well." They shake their head. "Poor Rocky. They were a little scared... or maybe a lot. They wouldn't stop crying because they didn't know what was going to happen to you."

"Hey!" Rocky shouts. "Enough!"

Lord Jiho and Felix chuckle at the antics of the spirits.

"Will he be able to listen to the elemental spirits permanently?" Minho asks and Lord Jiho nods.

"I was planning on taking it away, though, but it seems that Leo, Ken, and Rocky don't want that to happen. Plus for now, it will give him a chance to talk to the soul in his bag."

Minho furrows his brows as Felix finally sits up, Jeongin next to him and giving him a steady hand.

"Prince Chan isn't a spirit right now. He's a soul piece," says Minho. "They're not the same...?"

"They are one in the same," Lord Jiho says. "Souls cannot exist without spirits and spirits cannot exist without souls."

Minho looks to Jiho like the man just gave him confusing information. He then looks to Felix who is looking between the two of them, his brows also raised. When he does think about it, though, it does make a little bit of sense that they are one in the same.

"If you would like me to, I can explain more about soul spirits to you, dear soulkeeper. I don't mind sharing the knowledge of the spirits and perhaps it'll help you collect more soul pieces in the long run."

Minho shakes his head. "No. That's alright. I think I understand." He pauses for a second before his eyes widen, almost like it just clicked on what the High Priest has just said. He looks to the priest, his mind seemly turning before he clears his throat. "Actually, when we get done collecting Prince Chan's soul, may I come back here for some classes? I think..." He trails off like he's thinking about something.

Jiho raises a brow but continues to smile. "I wouldn't mind that at all. Before you go, I will give you a student's pass that will allow you to operate the airships. Whenever you're ready, I hope to see you soon."

"Thank you," Minho says bowing to the High Priest.

"Of course. I hope you find your studies here to be quite fulfilling."

Leo flies back to their place above Lord Jiho's head before plopping down on his head. They smile widely when they catch Felix watching them. Jiho chuckles as he looks to Felix.

"How are you fairing, Lee Felix?" he asks.

"I'm doing alright. A little sore here and there but I suppose that's just how that's going to be for now."

"I'm glad. We've had our best healers work on your body. However, they've instructed me to let you know that you must rest before travelling to your next temple. You body is still trying to compensate for all the blood loss." He pauses. "But I'm glad that you're doing alright. Gumiho's teeth are indeed very sharp."

"Do you know why she's been here?" Felix asks, intertwining his fingers with Jeongin's. He doesn't dare look down, not wanting to give attention to their clasped hands.

"No. I'm sure your air spirit has told you that for a while, we couldn't find the gumiho as she was hiding herself very well. And because of that, we don't know when she came on the island."

Felix does a double take when he spots Minki and Dongho, wondering when they had come into the room in the first place. However the looks that were giving each other told Felix that there's something they're not telling them. Something that could be deemed important if they were following the odd things happening within the elemental temples. If they keep going to the temples, however, he knows that they're going to be constantly going through the same thing but it's none of his concern. He's not a temple disciple, so they have a right to keep things from him.

...

He wishes, though, that there's something that he can do for them.

"What will you do with the gumiho?" asks Felix.

"We will be sending one of our envoy's to the Temple of Canines with the creature. Hopefully, they'll be able to watch over her."

A question pops up in Felix's mind but he doesn't voice it. Jeongin does however.

"Would you like for us to take her?"

"I couldn't possi-" Lord Jiho looks flustered at the question.

"The Temple of Canines is on the way to the Temple of Metal which will be our next temple of visit." He looks to Jeongin and Felix. "If that's alright with you. We have to go there anyways."

Felix nods. "I like that idea, if it's alright with you Lord Jiho."

"Since Felix was the one who subdued the beast, I'm sure that they would like to hear the story coming from him instead of one of us," says Minki. "It would help her in the long run as well."

Dongho clears his throat. "I agree. We're going to need all of the disciples here for the next few months and we don't have the proper caring tools we need to watch over her."

Lord Jiho furrows his brows and taps his fingers against his chin. He looks between Felix and Minki before sighing and nodding his head. "Then if you don't mind, I will leave the gumiho in your care. When you head back to the port city, make sure you let Minki and Dongho know that way they can take her to you. Thank you for doing for us."

"Of course not," Minho smiles. "We'll plan our route then."

Felix smiles as Jiho and his disciples leave the room. With a long sigh, Felix slumps against Jeongin, the Wishlight knight holding up his body. Ken and Rocky continue argue over something before both of them fly over to Felix and choosing to sit on Jeongin's head instead of Felix's shoulder.

"Do you think you're going to be alright going to Starlight?" asks Jeongin.

"I'm going to have to be," says Felix.

"We need to leave soon, then," says Minho. "We've been here for too long."

"In a couple of days then," agrees Felix. "We still have most of our things in port."

"Tomorrow then," Jeongin says, finalizing the plans. "Tomorrow we'll leave Gyatzo and head into port. Hopefully there are still some running ships to Starlight."

Felix walks down the street of the port of Starfire with his arms around Jeongin's shoulders. It's taking a lot of him to walk but he promised the Gyatzo healers that he's was going to be just fine. Since they're trying to reach Starlight and the journey will take about another six weeks, he'll able to rest aboard the ship.

The healers could only shake their heads.

Dongho and Minki had promised that they could come and say goodbye to Felix's group when they come to leave the gumiho in their care. They all agreed that it would be best to do that, not wanting to scare the innkeeper of anything.

Felix waved goodbye to Leo and Ken who hovered around Jiho before he had left, Rocky not wanting to say goodbye just yet. Jiho gave the little air spirit a tiny amulet that would allow them to say goodbye to Felix at the port and make their way back.

All of that was a couple of hours ago.

Now it's nearing sundown and they're just making their way back to the inn. The lady stares at them for a second, her fingers drumming on the counter before she clears her throat.

"Is one of you Sir Felix?" she asks, her voice slightly shaking.

"I am?" Felix questions, dropping his hand from poking Rocky's cheek.

"You have a package," she says. "Please wait here."

The innkeeper leaves, Felix furrowing his brows and looking to the others. They're just as confused as he is. It didn't make sense, none of this did. They told no one about their travels but it seems that someone is stalking Felix.

His blood chills.

Is it going to be another one of _those_ packages? He's only gotten one and they've stayed a lot of inns along the way, so what makes this inn so special?

"Another one?" Jeongin asks, gently squeezing Felix's waist.

"Are you sure you didn't tell someone?" ask Minho.

"I'm sure. Prince Soonyoung wouldn't allow it." Felix says. "But none of this makes sense. Why this inn?"

Minho and Jeongin shake their heads just as the innkeeper comes back with the package. It's a long box like the box he received from Chaerin's inn in Leam.

"It arrived this morning," the innkeeper says, pushing the box towards Felix and wrinkling her nose, "and just had your name on it. It stank so we didn't want to leave it in your room as we didn't know when you were going to be returning."

"It stinks?" Jeongin asks.

"Yes, like rotten meat."

Felix stares at the box and once again that cruel voice in the back of his mind is telling him something but he pushes it away. He doesn't want to think of that. Grabbing the box, Felix makes his way out of Jeongin's embrace to go and open the box outside. He hears Jeongin and Minho following him.

He waddles a little ways away from the main beach and heads to a place where he knows that no one is going to disturb them. He sets the box down and stares at it.

"Felix..." Jeongin trails off.

"It's a precaution," Felix says.

He continues to stare.

"I'll open it," Minho suggests. "It mig-"

"No," Felix says. "It's addressed to me."

He takes a deep breath before he begins to open the box, the stench coming rather rapidly. He holds his breath as the box comes into view, the sides tinging the brown darker. With shaky hand, he opens the box before slamming the lid shut. His entire body begins to shake.

"Legs," he says. "It's legs."

"What the fuck?" Minho questions, grabbing the box and opening it. He stares at the legs that are inside. Jeongin takes a couple of steps away from it, covering his mouth while Felix just stares at them.

"There's two pairs," Minho says after a couple of minutes. "There's a lot of scars on them."

Felix releases a breath he didn't know that he was holding. It's not them (not that Felix is thinking this in the first place. The same mantra from before is echoing in his mind.).

"Minho, please cover them. I'm going to be sick," Jeongin requests.

The soulkeeper covers the legs "Well whoever is sending Felix body parts is sick."

Felix doesn't say anything for a long time as he stares at the box. He has to be sick in the fact that he knows those legs don't belong to them and probably belonging to someone else. He closes his eyes for a second opening them when he feels someone pulling him up. He looks to Jeongin who gives him a soft smile. Minho had gone off somewhere else with the box.

"Are you okay?" Jeongin asks as they make their way back to the inn. The innkeeper gives them a small smile before they continue up to their room. 

"I'm getting body parts sent to me," he says after a couple of minutes. "But at the same time I'm relieved."

Rocky flies in front of his face, Felix paling a little bit. Gently, Jeongin sits Felix on the bed, the Firelight knight holding out one of his hands for Rocky to fly to. They stand on Felix's palm, their face a little pale as well.

"I'm sorry that you had to see that," Felix says as Jeongin sits next to him.

Rocky shakes their head. "I closed my eyes when I smelled them." They frown. "How can someone be so cruel?"

"Our world is cruel," Felix says.

"Our world is very cruel," Jeongin agrees.

Rocky doesn't say anything else and flies to the end table to snuggle in between a couple of bags that Felix had left before they went off to Gyatzo. Felix leans into Jeongin's side, the other knight pressing a kiss to his temple.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asks and Felix's shakes his head.

"I'd rather forget about it for now," Felix says looking into Jeongin's eyes. "We have to find a ship that will take us to Starlight. Maybe we'll..."

Felix trails off when Jeongin touches his face. He leans into the touch and closes his eyes, the look on Jeongin's face when he told him the story about Chan and him from all those years ago pops up into his mind.

But everything leaves the moment there's a gentle press of lips against his.

They’re warm and soft and everything Felix has ever thought kissing Jeongin would feel like. There’s butterflies in his stomach and his heart is pounding in his chest, as loud cheers comes from the depths of his mind but he wants to enjoy this moment. He can freak out and cheer about the kiss later.

He shoves everything out of his mind, only thinking about the lips pressed against his and the gentle cradle of his head. However, the back of his mind there's a thought. A single thought.

_This is different from kissing Chan._

Jeongin pulls away and Felix opens his eyes, looking at the other who is still very close. He presses a kiss to Felix's nose before once more kissing Felix's lips, their eyes falling shut.

 _This feels right_. _This feels so right._

Felix wakes up in Jeongin's arms, the other's clothed shirt in front of him. His body feels warm and a little sticky from the nightmare that woke him up. He stares at the chest in front of him, taking a couple of deeps breaths as he tries to regulate his heartbeat but being in Jeongin's arms is something that's going to continue to have his heartbeat going through the roof.

Very quietly, he pulls out of Jeongin's embrace and stands at the end of the bed. There's a sinking feeling in his gut, something telling him it's a very bad night to be doing this, but he needs to breath and calm down. With a quick kiss to Jeongin's temple, Felix is out the door with a little air spirit guide following him.

He slinks out of the inn and walks to a beach where he can sit and bury his toes in the sand. The air feels cool against his hot skin, a low hum falling from his lips. In front of him is the ocean in all of its dark glory under the moonlight. The moon shines beautifully against the water, creating a perfect reflection of the sky above.

"It's pretty here, isn't?" Rocky says after a few minutes of silence.

"It's calming."

They stay on the beach for a little while longer when Felix finds himself nodding off. He's still healing from his wounds which means, that he still needs some rest. He stands, dusting off the sand against his pants. He stretches before he turns on his heel and begins to leave. There's a noise coming from somewhere behind him, forcing him to turn around and blink at the light in his face.

"Excuse me sir," says the person walking towards them, "I'm going to have to ask you to leave. This beach is off limits during the night."

Felix furrows his brows. He hadn't heard of any beaches being closed during the night but he's tired and he doesn't feel like arguing with the person. "Oh. My apologies," is what he says instead.

The person comes more where Felix can see him, both of them beginning to stare at each other. Felix's blood freezes when he sees the colors of the uniform the man is wearing. He watches as the man's gaze goes up to his forehead, his eyes narrowing at the headchain.

This isn't good.

"Sir I'm going to have to ask you to come with me," says the Starlight soldier.

"What for?" Felix questions taking a couple of step backwards before he stops himself. He's still a little injured which means that no matter how much he wants to run, there's not going to be any escape from this man.

"I won't ask again, please come with me."

But that doesn't mean he can't try.

Felix doesn't think when he turns on his heel and bolts away from the officer. He doesn't have his weapon and he doesn't think that he could beat the other man in a fist fight. Plus he left without the letting anyone know.

He can hear the man running behind him and calling for help. Welcome to the chase that lasts until Felix's runs into someone. When he looks up it's another Starlight soldier who is looking at Felix in distaste.

"Rocky," Felix whispers, "tell the others about this."

Rocky hesitates before quickly flying away, the soldier swatting at the air spirit. Felix looks to the soldier and gives his best smile.

"What can I do for you?" he asks with a tilt of his head.

The soldier says nothing before landing a solid hit to Felix's temple knocking him out.


	4. the metal temple part one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw// forced drug usage, kidnapping, mental hallucinations, prison camp, war prisoners, ravaging animals

He felt his body sway with the sounds of the waves slapping the ship he was on. His arms were tied above his head and he could feel blood flowing out of a couple of wounds. His chest felt tight but that was nothing new when it came to situations like this. However it's been years since then. He hadn't been captured since the days of the Firelight war.

He took a deep breath, letting his body sag and the chains around his wrists digging into them. The wounds from the fight with the gumiho were still stinging around his body, the promise that he made to the Gyatzo healers were being unfulfilled.

He didn't know how much time had passed until someone came into the cell he was in. The Starlight solider looked at him with so much disgust, that he had to physically recoil from the gaze. He wasn't frighten, he was just tired of this still happening. He was tired of running around and hiding in places where they would think the Starlight Kingdom wouldn't find them. He was tired of people making the judgments that the people of Firelight were these heartless monsters that thought of no one but themselves.

He just wanted to live a normal life or as normal as one could get with being the right hand of the crown prince of the kingdom. However, there wasn't a single aspect of his life up until now that he would change. He would still want to fall in love with the knight of green and brown and still be friends with the prince of genies and with the lover of genies. He still would have wanted to travel to the elemental temples and befriended everyone he has met. He wouldn't change it for the world, he just wished that it would have been under different circumstances.

The first kick to his ribs never came as a surprise but that didn't mean the screech falling from his mouth was something he had to hide. With each punch, kick, and slap he felt his body scream at him in pain. It screamed for him to stop the torture and to let him breathe but not matter how much it scream or how much he screamed, the punishment for wearing his headchain continued on.

Sometime during the beating, his vision turned black and for a little while, he dreamt of nothing. Nothing but darkness that continued on and on, leaving his heart broken each time he breathed.

But then there was light within the darkness, a smile that seemed to be far more powerful than the dark. He heard the sound of laughter and saw the crinkle of an eye smile. He could taste peppermint on his tongue and he could feel his fingers running along someone's knuckles. But most importantly, he could smell home. He wanted to chase that happiness of belonging to someone but in the darkness of his mind and of the ship, he couldn't figure whose happiness he was.

Instead, he opened his eyes and he was still attached to chain that hung from the ceiling of the ship and swayed to the beat of the waves crashing against the wood. He was still in a place brought nightmares of times he wished didn't exist, of a time that took almost everything from him.

His body wasn't screaming at him because of pain, but because of an empty stomach. But he knew how these things worked. He knew that he wasn't going to be able to eat anything until they deemed him worthy enough to eat.

He tried to close his eyes and head back to a happy place but every time he closed his eyes, the only thing he could see was blood and the only thing that he could hear was screaming. His world lit up in a war zone, fire was everywhere and the stench of burnt bodies filled his nose. He eyes drank up the sight flames consuming live people like animals on a hunt but really, his gaze focused a man standing in the middle of fire. He stood in the middle with his head held high and his blonde hair in a long braid down his back. He looked over his shoulder to him, sleepy eyes smiling bright.

And then the arrows came.

One.

Two.

Three.

Seven.

Ten.

Fifteen.

Twenty.

There were arrows everywhere and he screamed. He screamed when the man fell to his knees and he screamed when the man continued to smile. He screamed when he saw the person who betrayed and he screamed when there was blood on his hands. He screamed and screamed until he couldn't scream anymore.

He opened his eyes.

Someone was touching his face but not really touching, more like slapping his face. He wouldn't be able to make out the words coming from the people's mouths for a couple of hours, everything slowly becoming fuzzier and fuzzier with each passing moment. But when he did hear something, everything started to make sense.

He heard something about a drug that would have the user trapped in a nightmare until the dose was done. Reports about the drug would have people living within their nightmares from days to months depending on strong their nightmare were and some people, some people would never make it out of their nightmare.

He closed his eyes again, the village he was in seemingly burning. He could hear the screaming coming from men, women, and children but there was this face that was beginning to haunt him. A face that he couldn't really recognize. The man would smile at him and press kisses to his cheeks and his nose but his death was always violent. His death was always the worst to watch.

He always screamed the loudest for the death of the man dressed in green and brown. His heart always felt like it was being torn apart when he stared at the body of green and brown. His world always felt like it was ending with the last breath coming from the man in green and brown. He would always hold the body close to him, tears pouring out of his eyes and his body shaking when he felt how cold it was. The man in his arms wasn't supposed to be this cold.

The man in his arms was supposed to be warm and full of life. The man in his arms was supposed to want to travel the world together and give him sleepy kisses in the morning. The man was supposed to help around the village, the little old lady who lived in the corner, smiling brightly when they would come by. He was supposed to have debates with the genie lover over silly things, and stupid things. He was supposed to be... he was supposed to be.

He was cold and his stomach hurt.

He wanted to cry but it felt like he had no more tears left in his body to do so.

He just wanted to be free, free from a nightmare that continued to drag him down. Free from a nightmare that seemed never ending.

He opened his eyes, a man standing in front of him. There was a look of pity in the man's eyes as he pushed something in his mouth, tears beginning to pour down his cheeks. He didn't want to eat anything, he didn't want drink anything he just wanted to be free.

The man's lips were moving but he couldn't hear anything. What would be there for him to listen to?

The man shoved something else into his mouth, his entire body shaking. He didn't want it. He really didn't want it. He had half the mind to spit it out but the glare coming from the man made him chew whatever was in his mouth and to swallow it. Tears continued to pour down his cheeks but things had started to become clearer and his senses were a lot more active than before.

"-ing -ght-are. I -nk he -in him -d-o."

He closed his eyes.

Felix could smell the salt in the air and feel the ship moving. He could make out the cell that he was in and taste the lingering fruit that seemed to have been placed into his mouth. He blinks a couple of times trying to make sense of everything that had happened to him but it didn't make much sense. Instead, it felt like his mind was jumbled into a huge mess of death and fire.

He did remember a couple of things, though.

The first thing was that he couldn't remember who he was or what he was doing. Every time he tried to think about it, a sharp pain would pass through his skull and it made it tough enough for him to forget everything else.

The second was the death. Not his death. Not Chan's death but Jeongin's death. He remembered screaming louder than he had screamed before He remembered calling out for the man in green and brown but he didn't move.

Felix felt terrified for the first time in a long time. He felt scared that he was going to lose the love of his life and that was something that he didn't want to go through again. The drugs that they give him was enough and the pain to have someone so special to him die multiple times was something he never wanted to see again.

The chains binding his hands to the ceiling jingle when the door to the cell opens. A couple of people that he doesn't recognize come, both of them raising their brow when they spot Felix watching them. One of them smiled, the edges of his mouth looking cruel.

"We've made it," he said. "You've lasted two weeks with the Nightmare. It's a pity though. I would have thought that you might have lasted longer. Your screams were pleasant to my ears."

Felix didn't say anything not wanting to give the man his satisfaction for breaking him. The man tsked and raised his hand like he going to hit Felix but the other man stopped him, shaking his head.

"We cannot damage the goods any longer. W need to transport him to the camp and inform the king that we've found another Firelight citizen within Moonlight grounds."

The first man snorted and shook his head. "Those dumb Moonlight people won't know what's going to hit them when the king decides their punishment and I honest to gods can't wait for that to happen." He sneers. "Moonlight is weaker than Firelight so it shouldn't be a problem to bring the kingdom down."

The two men laughed, one of the unlocking Felix's cuffs, only to place more cuffs onto Felix. They dragged him out of the cell and onto the deck where Felix wanted to shield himself from the sudden light. But that was a luxuriously that he couldn't afford right then. Instead, he was pulled from massive galleon with other prisoners and taken into a cart, where he was packed in like a can of fish.

The cart began to move once Felix as on board and looking through the bars. They passed through a port town that looked rather dull and boring, all of the walls and clothes grey. No one blinked an eye at the people in the cart nor was there a sound of children. People were in the streets but they kept their heads down, like they didn't want to be seen by anyone. Those who were at the market place kept their voices below a whisper, making the port town seem more like a graveyard than anything else. It was a truly frightening place, this port.

The cart of Firelight citizens headed north, only stopping a couple days for the drivers and no one else. Scenes of green and brown passed slowly, each hour or day (Felix wasn't sure) looks around would lose its beauty. There would be glimpses of people walking around but no one ever came to see what was inside of the cart, and even those in temple uniforms never saw them no matter how many times Felix would wave to them. Their eyes glossed over for a second before they looked in a different direction. They were never there in the first place. All of this confirmed Felix's suspicions about the Starlight Kingdom.

They were using something to make it seem that they were innocent in all of this.

Felix felt sick.

But truthfully, he had already felt sick and a little disappointed in himself. He succumbed the drug rather quickly, losing every sense of himself and that wasn't supposed to happen. He was supposed to be a strong man that could take care of the people left in his care _and_ he was supposed to be strong. This wasn't showing anyone anything. This would be showing his weakness.

Even the pity thoughts that came and went left Felix in a disarray. He would get rid them one day and the next they would come. It was a never ending cycle of such thoughts, something he never thought would have happened to him. He hated this.

He didn't find out how much time he spend looking outside of the bars until much later when they finally reached a destination. The place was dark and dreary...

The camp is grey and red.

But Felix isn't sure if grey and red were the right color matches for the buildings made of brick and stone, and tents an ugly shade of khaki. There are a couple of green patches, the small pop of color adding very little to those who walk around. People watched from tents and buildings, their eyes dull and lifeless. They are dressed in Firelight colors of orange and grey but the colors looked muted and dirty, something Felix would have never associated with his proud kingdom.

There are a couple of people, however, that held their heads up, little shimmers of hope in their eye. Those are the people who still wore their headchains and bruises down the side of his face. Since he was asleep before he left the inn back on the Starfire Isles, he didn't have his headchain. A little bit of shame courses through his body.

He finds himself thinking of Jeongin and Minho when the cart crosses into the camp. He thinks of their bickering and how much he actually wants to hear it. He thinks of Minho's wide smile when he wins against Jeongin in their debates and the victory dances he does. He thinks of Jeongin's smile and laughter to bring a small smile onto his face but most of all, he remembers the gentle touches coming from the other and the feel of his lips on his.

But when the cart doors opened, Felix stored his precious memories in the back of his mind as the chains around his arms are pulled. His body is still weak from the gumiho attack so when he steps on the ground, the first thing he does is fall. One of the guards sneers at him, pulling his foot back like he's about to kick him when someone stops him.

"We need all of them to be in a decent shape for now," says the guard that stopped the other one. "These are orders from above."

"Why?" says the other.

"We're looking for the High Knight."

Everything in Felix's body freezes. They're _looking_ for him?

"Why the High Knight?"

"I don't know," says the second soldier, pulling Felix by the chains to stand, "but the High Knight is wandering around the kingdoms for something and someone believes that he's going to be stupid enough to get caught. They say that he's proud and would never take off his headchain but that's all we know. Someone from another camp is supposed to be coming by in a few weeks so be careful with those who are still wearing their headchains."

Eyes pass over him.

He's not wearing his headchain.

While the guards were talking, the people that came from the cart had already gathered a small crowd of people looking to see who came. Felix watches as a couple of people's faces light up at the sight of someone but they don't say anything... or really, they can't say anything. Not yet at least.

Felix's eyes catch someone familiar and he stares in shock, the other person also starring in shock.

This is something.

"Have fun in here, Firelight scum," says one of the soldiers pushing a couple of people forward. "You'll be here for the rest of your life."

Another soldier goes around, taking the chains off their hands, not even afraid that these people will do anything in their fear. And Felix hates how they're correct. Not tries anything.

Someone pushes him into the crowd that had formed, Felix nearly knocking down a middle aged woman, who only sighs and tries to keep herself steady. She looks to Felix, her eyes completely lifeless.

"I'm sorry," Felix says, moving away from the women. Out of the corner of his eyes, he watches as the Starlight soldiers leave the group in the middle of the camp, far more interesting conversations taking place. They'd already forgotten about the people they just brought.

The woman shakes her head. "You best keep your apologies, child. They're not going to you much in here." She pats Felix's shoulders. "Where did they find ya?"

"The Starfire Isles. I was travelling with some companions of mine."

"Poor thing. They're probably the ones that sold you out. Those islands are no place for a Firelight citizen."

Felix shakes his head and narrows his eyes. "My companions wouldn't sell me out."

The woman shakes her head again and sighs. "If you want to believe that, you're more than welcome to. The world doesn't lik-"

"It is you, Lee Felix" says another female voice cutting off the woman. The woman blinks a couple of times, her pale face turning a couple more shades of pale when she looks over Felix's shoulder. She bows before hurrying away. "I never thought I would see the day."

Felix turns around at the sound of his name to find the same woman from earlier and a couple more people he recognizes. He feels the blood in his veins freeze a bit before his body is filled with bright fire. It has been a long time since he has seen these people, most of them he believed to have been dead when Bonghwan palace fell.

Felix rushes the woman as fast as he can. "Lady Krystal."

Lady Krystal or rather Krystal Jung comes from one of the four ruling houses of Firelight, the Jung family who ruled over the north with a fiery fist. The north is home to Yuju's lava tubes and the capital of the north, Iroh Island. The Jung family had always been close with the Bang family and by extension, Felix's family as well. Krystal and Jessica were sister that used to visit the main palace every couple of months up until their thirtieth birthday when they became adults.

Lady Krystal is the one that runs towards Felix, her arms open wide as she embraces him in a long hug. "They told us you were dead."

"They told us that all of the ruling families were also killed and yet here you are," laughs Felix holding her tight. He's the first to pull away, a fond smile on his face.

"My handmaids protected me for a long while until we were captured. Amber and Anne were killed a few months after that."

Felix begins to say his condolences when Krystal shakes her head. There's pain in her eye that was never there before but there's pain in a lot of people's eyes that wasn't there before. This war would continue to change even the kindest Firelight soul.

Krystal wraps a hand around Felix's wrist and gently pulls him away. People had been giving them funny looks once they had said each other’s names, which told Felix that it isn't a good thing if people knew their names.

As she pulls him, the greys and the reds become dirtier and the people become sadder, each look in a person's eyes look much like the woman from before. No one dared to look Krystal or Felix in the eyes and it was _everyone_. That did include a couple of faces that he recognized. The Court Physician’s daughter, one of the library keepers from the Great Library. It's becoming too much.

Felix stumbles, holding his side, the pain in his body flaring. He doesn't doubt that something might have begun to bruise due to a couple of falls but he really does need to sit down and rest before he can really do anything else. He stops for a moment, Krystal's eyes green eyes are furrowed in confusion as she stands next to him. She pokes his ribs causing him to hiss and recoil from the touch. Krystal winces but says nothing.

She waits a couple of minutes before continuing to drag Felix towards the back of the camp where there are more tents and huts than building. There's a children in this part of the camp, some of them openly looking at Felix while others hide their faces into their knees.

She leads him into a massive tent where there's a couple long tables in the middle, chairs scattered all around the room, and a few beds shoved in the corner. The people of tent have stood when Krystal walked into the tent but most of them keep their gaze on Felix, all of them shocked. Most of the people within this tent are nobles that he recognizes, a nobles who served under the Jung Family, Ahn Daniel of House Ahn and Park Kyung from House Park. Even Min Yoongi who served under the Kim family and the heiress to the Kim family, Kim Hyohyeon.

Two boys who were sitting at the one of the tables look at with Felix, their eyes wide. They look like carbon copies of the each other which tells him that they're twins but he doesn't think that he knows who these boys are. One twin rushes to Felix, looking him all over while the twin just stands there in shock and with tears in his eyes.

"Teacher Felix?" says the stunned boy.

"I'm sorry? Who are you?" asks Felix.

"It's really you." he says again, this time walking towards him and the other twin.

"It doesn't seem that he recognizes you, Son Dongju," says the twin who was looking him over. Now he's staring at Felix almost like he's scared that he's going to leave him.

Son Dongju?

Dongju?

Felix blinks at the name, taking in the features of the boys. Oh gods, how could he not recognize the faces that were staring back at him. He _knew_ these boys and he knew them very well. It's startling to see children who grew up over time without seeing them. His eyes move to the other twin, Dongmyeon.

Wow they really do grow up fast.

Pain shoots up his body, his legs beginning to give out. He's been standing for too long. Krystal looks at him with worry in her eyes before calling out: "Get him a chair. He's hurt."

In a manner of seconds there' s a chair in front of him with Krystal pushing him into it. He lets out a sigh of relief when he sits, sagging into the back of the chair. For a couple of moments, his body stops screaming at him.

"What happened to you?" asks Dongmyeon.

"Why are you hurt?" asks Dongju.

Felix gives them a tightlipped smile. "A gumiho."

"What!?" choruses throughout the tent causing Felix to smile. He doesn’t say anything else on the subject though and looks at the all of the faces in the room once more. He wants to ask so many questions, to see how people are doing, if they're still alive, but there's only one question coming to the front of his mind. "How long have you been here?"

Throats clear at the question, some people looking away from Felix and others just shaking their heads. There's various levels of pain on their features.

"At this camp?" Krystal questions. "I've been here a couple of years. Every now and then, they switch us around." She waves her hand "But enough of us. What about you? Where have you been? What have you been doing aside from fighting a gumiho? How did you get captured?"

Felix blinks at the questions being thrown at him and he hears the silent question, 'are we really going to be here for the rest of our lives?' He tries to form proper words in his mind but he's suddenly overwhelmed. These people look lost and right now, they look like they're trying their hardest to keep their emotions in check. Felix feels like he's being placed on a pedestal and being gawked at. He hasn't felt like this in years and he's forgotten what he's supposed to do but he does remember how to do one thing and that's to give hope.

"I've been in the Kingdom of Wishlight," he says. "We have allies there."

"Wishlight?" asks Ahn Daniel. "King Jiyong?"

Felix nods, moving his gaze to each person. "There is one more settlement in Skylight and another being moved from Moonlight to Wishlight. Queen Taeyeon is currently fearing for the lives of our people under her care. I've been helping Prince Soonyoung gather evidence against the Starlight Kingdom and I was on a mission at the Starfire Isles when I was captured."

"A mission? What about?" Krystal asks, her eyes filled with hope. Felix will not be the one to kill it from her. He will not.

"I'm afraid I can't say," he says with a quiet smile and a shake of his head. "Not yet, at least."

There's a quiet hum in the tent as another question begins to form on the people's tongue. Felix can see it, the question if he's given up on their kingdom and moved on or if he's still trying his best.

He closes his eyes and pictures the people of the village he watches over. He sees the children laughing and giggling brightly as the run around in the sun. He sees the fond look parents give to their children, before continuing on with their lives, protected away from the cruel king of Starlight.

He opens his eyes and sits straighter. He keeps his gaze level, Dongmyeon and Dongju notice the change in his stance, both mimicking him.

"I am doing my best for our kingdom," he says. "I will make things right and we'll be able to go home."

Krystal smiles softly as she crosses her hands over her chest, her pale braid falling over her arms. "Do you believe that? That we will go home?"

"Yes. I will help aid whoever I need to in order to make sure that the Kingdom of Firelight will rise again."

The tent opens showing the same cynical woman from before. She brushes her hands against her dress before looking at Felix and shaking her head. Her shoulders seem to have slumped more than before and her face seems to more tired.

"You cannot believe that," she says still shaking her head. "Your royalty is dead and our lands have been burned. There is nothing left for us in this world anymore."

"Madam Jane," Krystal sighs.

Felix does a double take at the lady. He takes in tanned skin, pale green eyes, and salt and pepper hair tied in a bun. She wears what seems to be the general uniform of the camp, a grey thigh length tunic with buttons going down the middle and black leggings that reach her ankles. But if Felix digs in his memory, he can picture a woman whose stance is tall and her shoulders square. She keeps a pair of daggers on her back, ready to attack anyone who would come her way.

He just stares.

How did war and this encampment do to one of the strongest women he knows?

"We have to believe that the ones outside are doing their best," Krystal says her face pleading.

Madam Jane snorts before she laughs, the sound broken. "Doing their best? I highly doubt it. I bet you anything they have forgotten about us in the camps. They probably don't even know what's happening to us and they probably don't care." She turns to Felix, placing her hands on her hips. "And I will tell you. Day after day, year after year we've been here, rotting away like a forgotten piece of bread. Men and women have missing leaving their children parentless. Children have been sold as slaves or taken to who knows where. I've seen more people die through starvation than I ever thought I would have and you're telling me to believe in the people that have forgotten us?"

No one says anything to that.

And the hope the group inside of the tent once had is suddenly gone, vanished like it was never there in the first place. The brings Felix's shoulders down. Was this really how the people inside of the camps thought of those on the outside? That they've forgotten them when in fact, they haven't?

Felix furrows his brows before looking to Madam Jane. "You've changed Madam Jane," he says quietly.

"I've adapted."

"You've given up hope." Felix takes a deep breath, looking at his hands. "But you're right. We don't know what you've been through, none of us outside of these camps know what you've been through but we haven't forgotten you like you've claimed. We remember those who are missing and lost every summer solstice. We pray to Lady Yuju to help protect those under her care and we pray to Lord Hansol to guide those who have passed on. We wear our colors and our chains proudly, Madam Jane because this is who we are.

"I cannot bring back the dead but I can look for the missing. Every mission I go on for Prince Soonyoung, I look for something about our people and while most of the time, I find nothing, and there are special moments in which I do." He closes his hand, forming a light fist. "I bring those special moments to the houses of those needing them. And each time I do, it’s a step closer for us going home. You may have give up on your kingdom and on us, but we on the outside will not give up on you." He takes a deep breath. "You told me that it was my travel companions who gave my position away but I can assure you that they were not the ones to do so. Why would a soulkeeper bound to Lord Hansol and one of Prince Soonyoung’s highest knights betray me? Most of the world may have turned against us at one point, but now the world is for us."

The tent is silent at Felix's words for a few minutes. Madam Jane's face turns different shades of red and pale before it stay on just red. She tsks and shakes her head after a couple of minutes.

"Those are bold words," she says.

"I am High Knight Lee Felix, former right hand of Crown Prince Bang Chan and my words have always been bold."

Felix stands from his chair. He can't bow nor can he kneel with this body in the condition that it is, but he can stand to show respect and to salute. He can try to bring back hope into this camp until someone comes and if no one does, he will do what he can.

"No one will come for you," she says but there's a different tone in her voice. It's almost like she's trying to tell that to herself instead of him, "Sir Felix but I applaud you on keeping your hope."

Madam Jane walks to a table and sits down. She doesn't look at anyone nor does she talk. She stares off into space, like she's remembering something else. Something far more pleasant than living in a place that constantly harms her.

Felix's body yells at him again, causing him to sit in his chair once more. There's a couple of sighs in the room like someone was expecting a large fight to break out.

"I, for one, agree with Madam Jane," says Dongmyeon who has sat back down at a table. He leans on it, his eyes losing the shine they had when Felix had walked in. "We've been stuck in here for too long with no way out. I don't think you've thought of something that might help us."

Felix shakes his head and looks to the flaps of the tent, frowning and drumming his fingers against his thigh. At first he was going to leave by himself, but the situation has changed. He can't just leave these citizens of the kingdom he swore to protect in a place like this. He _has_ to think of something, anything to get them out.

And maybe this will give him the escape from his mind that he desperately needs.

Felix's first night at the camp ended with him sleeping in one of the beds at the tent. He stared up at the khaki color, his mind going in circles. He wasn’t sure what to expect with the coming days but he does know that if he wants to get people out of here and that he really needs to think of something. His plan, for now, was going to walk around to find something, anything that could prove useful in his search to free his people.

For a couple of days he wandered around the camp, looking for something. He felt a little childish by doing things this way but he needed to know the layout of the camp and the how camp works. He just couldn’t do something and not know what the consequences for just doing something without a plan. He watched the guards, learning their schedules and how the move. He listened to the gossip coming from them, rolling his eyes when they talk highly of their king. 

His research came to a halt a few days later when he bumped into a soldier by accident. As much as he didn't want to apologize to the man, he is forced to before he's tied to a pole and whipped several times for causing problems. He's forced to stay on the pole for the night, only to be let go and pushed into the mine where the children and some of the men mined oil for the palace. He struggled to wield a pickaxe but he continued to try to work despite the pain in his body because when he looked at the others, his mind yelled at him for not paying enough attention.

He needed protect and fight for his kingdom.

The mines gave time for Felix to map them out and ask quiet questions to the men that have been there the longest. He asked where the tunnel would lead if they followed it and what made the tunnel because no matter how much he looked at it, the tunnel was _not_ manmade.

All of Felix's leads came to an end.

There was not much for them to actually make an escape. He knew that the Kingdom of Starlight was very powerful and was very secretive about the things that they do, but he hoped for that slip up. He could feel that there was one and that there was one close but he can't figure it out.

Just what is the slip up that was staring him in the face?

Felix developed a routine in the upcoming days: waking up, eating stale bread and spoiled meat, and going to the mines to work. It's dull but it keeps his mind thinking.

On seventh day of being put into the camp, Felix's routine changed.

He was on his way to the mines when there's a muffled cough coming from one of the tents and a little cry. He stopped to look at the flap but he kept his feet planted on the ground. These places are real people's homes and he couldn’t just go into one.

Another little cough following another and another. No other voice came from tent as Felix waited outside of it, trying to make the decision if he should go in or not. Maybe a peek will work, that way he could see if he's really needed or if someone is taking care of the little cough. Felix's feet finally moved towards the tent, peeling the flap a tiny bit. Inside were a single bed roll and a little girl, covered in a blanket and staring at the roof of her tent. She was herself, no one else in sight, her small body shuddering with every breath that she takes. He opened the flap more.

The little girl lying on the bed roll didn’t move from her spot, barely reacting to Felix opening the flap. She continued to cough. He dropped to his knees and placed a hand against her forehead, flinching slightly when he realized that she has a fever. He began to panic but shook it off. He's dealt with a sick person before, maybe not a sick a child, but still a sick person.

He made a mental list of the things that he needed but froze. He might not be able to get them there. Not with the guards and the soldiers walking around not caring about the Firelight citizens, but there had to be something. He stood up, mumbling soft words to the little girl before he left, looking for Lady Krystal or even Madam Jane.

After running through the tents, he found Madam Jane talking to another woman. Neither woman looked like they're in the best mood, but being yelled at be dammed. There was someone counting on him right then.

"Madam Jane," Felix said quickly. "I need your help with something."

Madam Jane looked at Felix for a second before her face scrunched up in disgust. "You need something? That's a first."

"Please, there's a sick child and I don't know what I can use here to help treat her."

Madam Jane scoffed. "A sick child? Let her be sick then. In the best scenario, she'll die and get out of this hell hole. Hopefully Lord Hansol will have pity on her and reincarnate her into a better life and not one like this one again."

Felix just stared at Madam the Jane the more the woman talked. Disappointment filled his body the more he listened. Maybe he should have known before he went to look for her, but this woman, this former shell of a woman that he once respected is no more. The only thing that he could is shake his head and look at her sadly. He said nothing to her as he turned on his heel and began to look for Lady Krystal. She might be able to help... maybe.

He found Lady Krystal in the massive tent, talking to Dongmyeon about something. They both looked rather guilty when Felix comes into the tent, raising a brow.

"I'm going to question this later but I really need help. There's a sick child and I need to know what's here so I can attempt to treat her."

Dongmyeon and Krystal didn't say anything, only jumping into action. Krystal rushed to get the things that she needed, just as Dongmyeon grabbed some extra blankets, waiting for Krystal to finish making her move.

Without another word, Felix led Dongmyeon and Krystal to where the girl’s tent is. She didn't have much, but Krystal seemed to have used her best medicine on the child, with small whispers of encouragement for her. Dongmyeon, on the other hand, helped clean the area where the little girl was sleeping, making sure to free the area of dirt and anything else that could make her sick.

And now, they had to wait.

When she woke up, she said her name is Choi Yoojung and she lived by herself seeing as her parents had died a couple years ago. Felix being Felix did not want to leave her by herself and asks if it would be alright if he could stays with her to watch over her since she was still getting over her illness. At first, she shook her head, but a cough rattled her bones before she mumbled that Felix can stay.

And thus Felix's new routine had begun.

But like everything in Felix's life, it only lasted about a week before it changed once more.

Every week the guards at the camp have a set up where they would bring rations for the week. The people inside of the Firelight camp have to go and gather them, hoping that there is enough for all them. With two sets of rations that he needs to get, Felix makes his way to where people have already began to gather with a semi well Yoojung behind him. She holds onto his hand rather tightly, her eyes drifting everywhere. Felix tries to placate her with little stories of the others.

When Felix speaks of Jeongin, he speaks with heat in his cheeks and smile on his face. At least, that's what Yoojung says. She pokes his cheeks when he picks her up.

"Do you love Jeongin like mommie and daddie loved each other?" she asks, placing her head to Felix's chest.

There's that word again.

Love.

Rocky had said the same thing when they were travelling in the forest and now this little girl is also telling him that he's in love with Jeongin. He just wasn't sure yet. He doesn't know if this feeling is really love.

"I don't know," is his answer.

Yoojung puffs her cheeks. "You talk about Mister Jeongin like mommie did when daddie did something silly."

"I do?"

"Yes." She giggles. "Mister Felix, you love Mister Jeongin and that's final!"

Felix chuckles at her but wonders if that's really true. Does he love Jeongin?

The closer they get to the front of the line, the more Felix suddenly feels like he's being watched. As discreetly as he can, he looks around, spotting a pair of silver eyes staring him. He blinks a couple of times because he doesn't know why a pair of silver eyes would be looking at him or really why silver eyes would be looking at him from one of the buildings in the square. He tries to ignore them or lose them, but they're watching him like a hawk does their prey.

This couldn't be good.

He pauses in that thought.

Maybe it is good. He hasn't felt a malicious intent coming from those eyes, only curiosity. He looks to the pair of silver eyes looking at him from the window of the building to find another pair of eyes looking at him. This time, they're white.

White and silver eyes.

Who has a pair of silver eyes and a pair of white eyes? No one that he ca-

Wait.

They did.

Felix's heart leaps in his chest and decides to keep his face forward, not daring to look back and give away the position of the eyes watching him. Two emotions begin to wrangle in Felix's mind, one being excitement that someone is here for him and the other disappointment that he couldn't find a way out himself. He couldn't find that slip up from the Starlight Kingdom have here.

Yoojung pokes Felix's cheek.

"Is everything alright?" she asks.

Felix looks down at her and smiles softly. "Everything is going to be alright."

Felix gets his rations quickly and tries to make his way through the camp with two bundles of food and a small child in his arms. He makes to the back, opening the flap and looking at the group of people inside. Krystal stands, looking in between Felix and Yoojung.

"Is there some-" Krystal starts.

"There are people from the outside in the camp," he says cutting her off.

"What?"

"There are people from outside the camp inside." He sets Yoojung on one of the chairs.

"Do you know who?" Krystal asks, raising her brow. He can tell by the look on her face and way her body language is that she doesn't believe him.

"I have a guess," he says.

"And you think that they're coming for you?'

"Yes and no. I think they might come for all of us."

"This is a Starlight mandated camp, in case you forgot," sighing and sitting back down. She places her hands on the table and shakes her head, tiredness dripping from her body. "No one is coming in or coming out without the permission King Jinyoung or have you forgotten?"

"How can I forget? At first it was just Madam Jane telling me but recently it has also been you speaking the same thing since I've gotten here."

"Look, I don't want to snuff out your hope but you've already been here for almost two weeks and nothing has happened. You can hold onto your hope for as long as you like but hope inside of these camps doesn’t last very long."

"Then maybe you should continue to hope," a new voice hums just as the flap of the tent opens.

Felix turns to see silver eyes smiling at him in amusement followed by white eyes that look done with the other. He can't help the smile that blooms across his face when he sees the twins. It's been a really long time since he has last seen them, the last time being a couple of weeks before Chan died.

The boys in front of him wear the uniform for the Temple Aviary complete with the thigh length blue tunic and knee length pants. The silver eyed boy rushes to Felix and stops right in front of him, leaving the tent with a bated breath.

"You must be Uncle Felix!" he says “Hi!"

He's _who?_ "What?"

"Uncle Felix! You're papa's best friend!"

He's _whose_ best friend? "What?" he says again.

The silver eye man frowns, his shoulders beginning to sag. "Or are you not Uncle Felix? Dad said that's who we were coming to rescue. Maybe he got the description wrong but you have freckles on your face just like Dad said you were going to have."

Felix furrows his brows, trying to make sense of the conversation but he can't. He knows who papa is but the fact that this child even knows that is mindboggling for him... but wait does that mean...?

"Changbin is here?" he asks.

The boy sucks in a breath before breaking out into a smile. "Ah ha! You _are_ Uncle Felix and yes! Dad is outside with Sir Jeongin and Sir Minho." The boy wraps his arms around Felix in a hug before looking him over and walking in circles around him. "Hmm, you're still injured from the gumiho attack and there seems to be new injures, I'm guessing from here." He blinks when he looks at Felix's eyes. "And you do have pretty eyes like Dad said. It's no wonder Sir Jeongin is courting you."

The white eyed twin sighs and shakes his head. He walks over to his brother and pulls him away from Felix, barely glancing at Felix. "This isn't the time for this Sannie," he says.

"But Jonggie according to Dad this is the first time we're seeing Uncle Felix in fifteen years! I want to take it all in!"

"And you will but not at this moment." He looks to Felix, a look of awe slowly making its way into his eyes. "While it's nice to see you again Uncle Felix, we've been tasked to find out what's happening behind these walls while coming to rescue. I pictured a lot of things but nothing like this." His voice grows hard. "I'll go inform Father. Will you be okay here, Sannie?"

"Of course! Be careful going out. Those soldiers looked a bit sturdier than you."

The white eyed disciple rolls his eyes. "I doubt that."

"Remember that there's always someone stronger than you, Jongho! Always!"

Felix tries to fight a smile off his face.

Choi Jongho and Choi San.

Twin brothers who had lost their family during the war. Felix was the one to find them, standing above a couple of Starlight soldiers and blood on their hands. San had looked at Felix with wide teary eyes and dropped the stone in his hand, mumbling something under his breath. But it's something to see that once terrified five year old standing above the men who killed his parents with a wide smile and life in his eyes as a young man.

Jongho is still a little intimidating, now standing a little taller than San. His arms are crossed over his chest and his blonde hair is pulled into a loose side ponytail. Much like before, he stands behind San, acting more like a guard to San than his younger brother.

Felix silently laughs.

They haven't changed at all.

Jongho is just about to turn to leave when something drops behind them. Felix glances at Krystal who is staring at Jongho and San in disbelief and shuffling backwards. Her eyes are wide as she changes her gaze to Felix, who gives her a smile.

"How did you get in here?" she stammers, her gaze now flickering between Felix and the new arrivals.

"We walked in!" San says with a wide grin.

"One does not simply walk into a camp like this! Not when we're being watched like we are! Not to mention there are guards everywhere!"

"That there are but this is the also a digging bird habit!"

"A what?" Her voice is high and a little squeaky.

"Digging birds! They create massive tunnels that people mistake for mines and other things." He shakes his head. "It's kinda frustrating for them. Imagine having humans coming into your home and destroying everything you have," his eyes grow a little dark. "I couldn't imagine but anyways! That's how we got in and wow, we really did learn a lot at the temple." He turns to Jongho. "Can you believe it?"

Jongho sighs like he's used to his brother's antics. He gives Felix a long stare causing him to snicker.

Felix clears his throat. "Lady Krystal this is Choi-"

"Seo!" San cuts in. "We took Dad's name when he officially adopted us! I'm Seo San and this is my twin, Jongho. We've come from the Temple of Aviary to rescue our uncle and anyone else who needs rescuing!"

Krystal's expression turns slack, like her mind is still catching up with what's going on around her. "And how do you plan on getting us out?"

San taps his chin and squeezes his brows together. His mouth twists into confusion. "Well at this moment I don't know. That's why Jongho is going to go to Dad and maybe bring him or some kind of plan here." His expression changes into a serious one. "Of course we don't want to alert the guards of what's going on in here so for now, we ask that you stay quiet until we have a set plan."

Krystal turns to Felix with different emotions in her eyes while Felix just smiles. He doesn't know what Changbin and the Temple of Aviary are doing here but if they're willing to help, then it shouldn't be a problem. The problem is getting the people within the camp to actually leave. These people have just about given up but this is something that's going to change. He just hopes that everyone is going to agree and act appropriately during the rescuing effort.

But now a bigger question rears its head.

When they get out of this camp, where are these people going to go?

He has to talk to Krystal.

"Go to your father," Felix says to Jongho. "Let him know what's going on." He looks to Krystal. "We now have something to discuss."

"I'll be back then. Sannie behave."

San snorts. "You don't think I'm going to behave?"

"I know you too well," Jongho sighs. "Please don't hound Uncle Felix with questions either. I'm sure he's tired and doesn't want someone babbling in his ear at the moment."

At that, Jongho leaves and San pouts, crossing his arms over his chest and mumbling under his breath. Felix can't help the laugh that falls from his lips nor can he help the gaze that goes over San.

It really has been a long time since the last time they've seen each other.

Seo San stands a bit taller than Felix instead of three to four heads shorter. His blonde hair is no longer sitting above his shoulders, but waist length on one side and intricate braids on the other.

San grabs Felix, staring at him for a couple of minutes before pulling him to sit in one of the chairs. Krystal went to lie down for a couple minutes, disbelief still running all over her face.

"Uncle Felix?" San questions.

"Yes?"

"Dad didn't say what your mission was but I'm curious to know."

Felix smiles softly. "To help my kingdom."

"I know that," San says leaning back, stretching his arms out, "but there's something more because Dad has looked contemplative recently. He spent a long time talking to Sir Jeongin and Sir Minho about something and I'm pretty sure at one point, he started to cry."

"I'm sure he did," Felix says tapping his legs. He stops, opening and closing his hands into a fist. Would it be best to tell them now what they're doing or to wait until everything is said and done?

...

Maybe the latter.

He reaches for San's head, patting his head. "If you don't know yet, then it'll be a wonderful surprise when it done then."

San looks at Felix with eyes that seem older than they are. He doesn't say anything and instead cranes his head for another head pat. They both continue to smile.

"This feels familiar," San says closing his eyes.

Felix ruffles his hair before running his fingers on the chain around his head. The color of the beads hadn't changed but two more gems have been added. He can't help the tears that fill his eyes when he stares at the pink and white opal. It sits next to a beautiful peridot. "You liked head pats when you were younger," his voice cracks.

San hums.

They stay like this for a couple more minutes before Yoojung comes over. She stares at San before looking at Felix and plopping herself on his lap. A laugh tumbles out of Felix's mouth when she places his other hand on her head to give her head pats. Felix complies.

Krystal comes after Yoojung has fallen asleep, her tiny body circled against Felix's stomach. She places her hands on her hips before kneeling and sitting next to the three of them.

"You said we had things to discuss," she says. "Like what?"

"Where you're going from here," he says, still carding his fingers through Yoojung's hair. "You can't go back to Firelight. At least not yet."

"You're making this sound like you're not coming with us."

"I'm not. I still have something to complete but maybe you can make your way to Wishlight and look for Changkyun. He would be able to help."

Krystal looks to the ground and Felix wonders what she's thinking. It would be ideal for them to go to Wishlight but the Wishlight community is gaining the Moonlight ones. Adding these people that are here wouldn't be the wisest but it's the only choice that they currently have.

She doesn't say anything else after that. It's hard to when you're in charge of people's lives. What are the right choices? Are they going to be happy with the choices that she's going to make for them? Do they want a say in what's going to happen to them?

He wants to tell her that it'll become easier with these things, but instead he looks down, his fingers finally stopping in Yoojung's hair. He doesn't know the answer to any of the questions he just thought of and he's sure neither does Krystal.

He's not sure how much time passes with Felix talking to San and Yoojung sleeping on his lap but what he does know is how fast his eyes land on Jeongin when he walks into the tent behind Jongho and Changbin. He feels his eyes widen.

San takes Yoojung from his lap just as Jeongin rushes towards him, wrapping his arms around Felix and pulling him close. Felix takes a moment to react, a shudder of a breath passing through his lips just as he grips onto Jeongin. Tear fill his eyes but he blinks them away. He can't cry right now, not yet anyhow.

But for the first time since he left the Starfire Isles, Felix feels safe.

Changbin huffs somewhere behind the two of them, Felix quietly laughing.

"Idiots, the both of them," Changbin says.

"Hush Dad," San snickers. "Let them have their moment."

"Fine. Who's the leader of this camp, then?"

"That would be me," comes Krystal's voice. "My, my, you haven't changed, Seo Changbin."

"Oh fuck off."

Felix pulls himself out of Jeongin's embrace, ignoring the rest of the conversation between Changbin and Krystal. He feels a little bad because he should be listening to them, but all his mind can think of right now is Jeongin.

Jeongin is here.

Jeongin is here.

"You're okay," Jeongin breathes, pressing a kiss to Felix's forehead.

"I'm okay," Felix closes his eyes and relishes the feeling of the lips on his forehead.

Changbin tsks. "If the idiots on the floor are done with their reunion, then we can get started with a plan on getting people out of here."

Jeongin glares and Felix laughs, pulling the other with him, intertwining their fingers. He smiles to Changbin and pokes his shoulder. "What's going on?"

Changbin rolls his eyes and scrunches his nose. "Soulkeeper Minho has left the forest and is on his way to the Temple of Canines. He's going to ask for their help and once he comes back we'll be able to get you out of here."

"And how do you know the Temple of Canines is going to help?" Krystal asks.

"Because I know the Temple of Canines and this is on their territory," Changbin says tapping the side of his head and crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm surprised they didn't know about this beforehand, though. The temple disciples hate places like these and will always bring them down when they have the chance."

"Starlight is amazing at hiding things," Felix says. "So I'm not surprised that they've taken this long in finding anything. The cabin in Moonlight's territory took us a long time to find even with Elkie's tip."

Changbin looks to Felix before looking away. He plucks something from his hips, holding it in his hands. Felix sees the design of the bag holding Chan's soul. He stares at it, a whirlwind of emotions goes through his mind. After a couple of seconds, he looks away.

"He doesn't know about the gods," Jeongin says, "only that we have a mission to collect Chan's soul. Minho thought it would be best not to get his hopes fully just in case something happens. Besides, it didn't feel right letting him know about your mission."

Felix nods at Jeongin's words. He looks back at Changbin, ignoring the bag in his hand. He can't look at it just yet.

"How are we getting out of here?" he asks.

Changbin grips onto the bag a little tighter drawing Felix's attention for a couple of seconds. "Depending on how the Temple of Canines decides to attack, we might use the digging bird's tunnel or we'll walk through the front door."

Mentally, Felix laughs. He's been looking everywhere for the slip up and it was the thing right in his face. He knew that the tunnels didn't look man made but he would have never guessed that it was a bird that created them to look like they did. Maybe he should have followed the tunnel to see where it would have lead.

Another thought stills his mind.

"How didn't we know about the mine being a tunnel that leads out?"

Where are the birds?

Changbin shakes his head and gives a small smile. "They're easy to mistake, truthfully. Most of the time, no one is sure if they're truly digging bird tunnels or just a natural one."

"It didn't look natural..." Felix mumbles out loud. "I just had no idea."

"Not surprising there. Anyways, Minho should be back in a couple of days so we have to wait until then."

Felix releases a breath, his mind still on the birds. He doesn't know anything about them but where are they? Were they thrown out of their home? Were they killed? What happened to these massive birds?

"And the birds?" Felix asks. "Do you have an inkling of what could have happened?"

Changbin looks to Felix but its San that answers. "They normally stay inside of their tunnels until death but these tunnels look like they've been abandoned and there are no bones so nothing has died underneath your feet. It leads me to believe that they've fled." There's a glint in San's eyes, one that Felix has seen before a long time ago. "But they'll be back. This is their home after all." 

Felix doesn't like the tone of voice that San is using but he's not going to call out the temple disciple. Instead, he's going to focus on what's in front of him now that he has his answer. "How far is the Temple of Canines from here?"

"On foot about two weeks," Changbin says shaking his head. "However I've lent Minho Spear so it should take a couple of days."

"I didn't see Spear in the skies."

"We fly at night so I'm not surprised." The temple prefect scoffs and takes a deep breath. "For now, we wait until Minho comes back. My guess is five days at the least. Jeongin and I are going to be outside the gates. San and Jongho will stay." Jeongin opens his mouth to protest but Changbin shakes his head. "I know you want to stay but it's not a good idea. Your face is known to these men while San's and Jongho's aren't. They'll be able to blend in more than you can."

"But..."

Felix winces. He hates it when Changbin is right and the little angry man is always right, at least most of the time. "He's right, Jeongin. Go with him."

Jeongin looks at Felix, a pout forming on his face. He looks like he wants to argue but he sighs, squeezing Felix's hand "Fine. Just be careful."

"Always."

"In that case, we better get going then," Changbin says pointing to the flap. He ties Chan's soul bag to his belt, Felix watching him for a couple of seconds. "We'll come back when Minho comes, until then, please hang tight. We'll get you out of here."

Changbin moves to leave the tent but Jeongin stays in place. He reaches into one of his bag and pulls out a chain. Felix stares at it. It's been a hot minute since he's seen his headchain or even wore his headchain. He misses the weight the chain had around his head and the feel of the cool metal. He knows what his chain stands for... but for some reason, he can't find it in himself to reach out for it.

Felix's headchain was the important factor of becoming a knight. It was blessed by the king and one of the residing priests of Lady Yuju. To him it's his symbol of being a knight and a symbol of pride.

But right now, he doesn't feel like a knight.

He feels like he's been ruined.

He couldn't even protect the one person he was sworn to protect.

"Felix?" Jeongin calls out. "Are you alright?"

He looks to Jeongin and give him a tight lipped smile. "Uh, yeah. I'm fine."

He needs to be fine. These thoughts, these worries, these broken promises need to be shoved into the back of his mind again. He didn't even think about how he got here and the methods of doing so, which means that he's not going to be doing this now.

A loud tsk comes from Changbin who marches back to where Jeongin and Felix are standing. He glares at Felix, snatching the headchain from Jeongin's hand and pushes Felix so that he's kneeling in front of him.

"I don't know what these fuckers did to you," he says, "but I know that look in your eyes. You took an oath, you fucking asshole. You better keep it."

And with gentle fingers, the lover of the deceased prince of Firelight places the High Knight's headchain back on his head. 

"That's where it belongs," Changbin says. "And that's where it will stay."

Changbin turns on his heel and walks out of the tent, causing everyone to stare after him. Felix blinks back the tears that collected in his eyes, wiping them away as soon as they appeared. He stands feeling a bit better than before.

"Felix?" Jeongin questions.

"When we have the time," Felix says looking back at Jeongin, "I need to tell you multiple things."

Jeongin blinks before smiling and pressing a soft kiss to Felix's cheek.

"I'm looking forward to it then."

Five days.

It's the night of the fifth day in waiting for some king of answer from outside but there's been nothing.

Felix sits inside of the big tent with a handful of people, San and Jongho sitting with Yoojung who looks a little bit nervous for some reason, and Krystal who keeps looking out beyond the slit of the tent. He’s talk to Dongmyeon who had asked about fighting with temple disciples when Krystal clears her throat. She looks at him dead in the eyes before walking towards Felix with a small box in her hand. She stares at it for a little while before handing it to him. There's something a kin to determination in her eyes almost like someone flipped a switch. She seems different.

"High Knight Felix," she begins, "I have a request for you. For a knight, your headchain is important to you. It's blessed by the king and a priest of Lady Yuju and is a representation of your knighthood. I know that this should be the other way around but I would like to ask you to place my headchain on my head."

"What?" Felix is bewildered at Krystal's words, taking a step back, his face contorting into confusion. This isn't something he's supposed to be doing.

"Before you came, most of us here had lost hope. We were doing thing as they came to us and not fighting for our lives. We began to believe the words these Starlight soldiers were telling us and we lost who we are. I lost who I was. When you arrived, I remembered what hope was like, what freedom was like, but most importantly what it mean to be a Jung." She takes a deep breath, looking into Felix's eyes. Krystal stands straight, that aura Felix knows that screams Krystal Jung surrounding her.

He smiles.

"But then no one came," she continues. "I once again let those who lost hope deter me into believing that when I never should have. I am a coward but I want to bring peace to myself and the people here within this camp. I want to be the Jung that I know I can be."

"Then be it," Felix says with a smile.

He opens the box in his eyes to see a beautiful rose gold headchain. A gem of garnet and a gem of tanzanite sit on the first of the smaller chains. The second chain remains empty and single opal on the third and final chain. Next to it is a large red striped agate with a phoenix carved in the middle. Picking up the chain with delicate fingers, he gently places it on her head before taking out the striped gem and hanging in the center.

Felix takes a couple of step back before kneeling in front of her.

"Be the Jung who looks over the northern parts of Firelight."

Now she really does look like Lady Krystal Jung, the noble who watches over Iroh Island.

(There’s a small hand that pulls on Felix’s hand. He looks at Yoojung who also has a small box in her hands and she passes it over to him.

“I want my headchain,” she says. “I was too young when my parents died to get it but I want it.”

Felix opens the box in his hand where a little silver headchain sits. He blinks a couple of times when he notices the small blue striped agate next to the chain. He looks at Yoojung who smiles back at him.

She’s a Choi, the noble family who watches over the south.

With nimble fingers, Felix does what she asks and presses a gentle kiss to her cheek.)

It's silent for a couple of minutes but that's when the screaming and the loud roars start. Felix rushes to the opening of the tent, staring at the smoke that reaches the sky. Growls of animals and cries of birds fill the air, drowning out the screaming coming from the people.

"Watch her!" Felix yells over his shoulder, throwing a glance towards Yoojung and bolting down the street.

The more he runs towards where the gate is the louder the screaming and growls become. He glances up to see massive birds coming down and plucking Starlight soldiers from the ground. He doesn't keep his gaze up to watch.

"What?" he breathes when he sees animals tearing people apart. "What is this?"

"Felix!" someone yells causing him to turn around and come face to face with a sharp beak.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)


End file.
